Latest / The Breakfast Club / Political Hot Topics with Ashley Etienne: Lindsey Graham's Empty Seat, Trump's Iran Mess, and the Bill the Democratic Party Owes Black America

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Political Hot Topics with Ashley Etienne: Lindsey Graham's Empty Seat, Trump's Iran Mess, and the Bill the Democratic Party Owes Black America · The Breakfast Club

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Lindsay Graham's sister just got his Senate seat.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Thank the governor for selecting me to serve the remainder
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: of Lindsay's term and is such an honor.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: The President is set to address the nation and the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Democrats still can't find their footing petting into the midterms and.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: They can't just run on an anti Trump platform.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: We're breaking it all down on a special political hot
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: topics episode with insider Ashley Ettanine. It's Wednesday, July fifteenth,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Imani Brown, this is
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: front Page. Stay with me. There's a lot happening in
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Washington right now and a lot of questions about what
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: it all means. So joining me is Ashley Ettonin, CEO
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: of Ettonine and Saint. She's an NBC Meet the Press
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: contributor and former senior advisor to President's Obama and Biden,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Vice President Kamala Harris, and former House Speaker at Nancy Pelosi. Ashley,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining me today. How are you?
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: And well, thank you for having me absolutely so.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: You know, I wanted to jump into the news of
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the week. Senator Graham passed away over the weekend, Governor
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Macaster appointed Lindsay's sister to temporarily fill his seat, even
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: though she has no experience in elected office. How unusual
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: is an appointment like this.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: It's fairly unusual, but it does happen. You know, they
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: used to call it historians. We'll call it the widow secession.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: So there's about forty seven times in both the House
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: and the Senate where a widow has replaced their husband
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: after he died, and you know, with and without experience.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: But what I find most uncommon about this particular appointment
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: was that the governor was incredibly shrewd and that he
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: decided not to appoint someone to the seat who would
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: actually run for the seat. So Lindsay Graham's sister is
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: now saying that she's not going to run for this seed.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: So she said she's going to be a caretaker of
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: the seat, and there's going to be a primary race
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: in August. So essentially, what the governor has done is
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: ensured that there's going to be a competitive Republican primary
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: where it's likely going to get nasty. They're going to
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: spend a lot of money, which is going to create
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: a lot of opportunity for Democrats. On the ground. He's
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: also running the risk that it would divide the Republican
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Party in South Carolina and again cost the party a
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: lot of money and potent potentially a lot of damage
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: if you were called. Not too long ago, Jamie Harrison
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: ran against Lindsay Graham and almost beat Lindsay Graham. He
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: was competitive at one point, running neck and neck with
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Lindsay Graham. So this creates, as I said, you know,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: it creates a debacle for the Republican Party on the ground,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: but creates a big opportunity for the Democrats to potentially
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: make this seat competitive. It's definitely more competitive today than
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: it was a week ago.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: And you know, speaking of mid terms, I know Democrats
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: have been looking for, you know, an issue to rally
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: voters around heading into the midterms. Have they found one yet?
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: What do you think?
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: I mean? I think that's a good question. You know,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: I've been arguing that the Democratic Party needs to come
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: up with an affirmative, proactive agenda. They need to tell
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: the American people what they're for layout a vision that
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: contrasts with what Republicans are offering. They can't just run
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: on an anti Trump platform, but what is winning and
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: working for Democrats is affordability message ninety five percent. I'll
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: say that again, ninety five percent of the nation says
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: that we're in an affordability crisis. So that includes a
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: lot of Republicans. So Republicans are operating on the defensive
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: right now. They're shaking in their boots about what's going
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: to happen in November. So Democrats have an advantage when
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: it comes to that. But what's going to be critical
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: is whether or not they can lay out a vision
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: again that draws in a broad swath of American voters
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: and that lays out what a proactive agenda would look
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: like what they'll do come November. And that's important because
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: you know, I, as you mentioned, used to run communications
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: for Speaker Pelosi when we won the House. We won
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: forty seats when I was in charge. And what's going
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: to be very important is what happens day one after
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: you win in November. If Democrats win, you got to
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: have momentum, So you've got to have an agenda that's
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: fully flushed out. You're gonna have these new Democratic socialists
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: that are going to be in the caucus that are
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: going to likely be causing a lot of problems for leadership.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: So it's gonna be and then you're gonna have Donald Trump.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: He's going to be an outlier. He's going to be
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: a major force. You know, he loves to play dirty,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: he loves to get in the mud with Democrats. So
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: it's gonna be it's gonna put Democrats in a position
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: where they're gonna have to play defense and offense at
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: the same time. And if you don't have your act
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: together about what your agenda is, you're not going to
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: have any momentum going after the November election, meaning passing
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: bills and creating a sense that you know that you're
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: you're you're in Washington and claiming a stake for the
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: American people and you know, and again, have your act together.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: So it's going to be a challenge for Democrats if
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: they don't come up with a proactive agenda and give
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: the voters something to vote for, not something to vote against.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: You know, you made such good points right there, because
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: I feel like what I've been hearing is what's the
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: messaging coming from Democrats right now? How do they pivot
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: and stay on this affordability stance right now? What's the messaging?
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: What do they need to do well.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: I mean I think they need to you know, I
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: would hate, I hate to say this, but they kind
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: of need to model. These Democratic socialists that are out
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: here meeting Democratic incumbents and winning these open seats. I mean,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: they're really speaking directly to the concerns of the American people,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: and they're laying out a vision about how they're going
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: to actually address those issues. I mean, take Mundani for example.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, he's a prime example of talking about how
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: life is too expensive, the rent is too high, that
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: people are challenged to make ends meet, and so he
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: laid out a vision. You know, we're going to pay
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: for you know, childcare, We're going to pay for bus
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: your bus fare, you know, all of these different ideas
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: that are innovative and forward leaning, but that speak directly
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: to the challenges that people are facing. So that's my
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: advice to the party. I've not seen yet where they're
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: going to do it. It seems to be a level of,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: you know, a risk aversion right now. But I will
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: say that the issue of affordability is so potent right now.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: You have Republicans running away from the President on this
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: particular issue that the Republicans in Congress are begging the
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: president to pass, for example, that housing build that he's
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: stalled out right. They're desperate to get the president to
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: look forward, leaning on the economy and not as though,
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: as he has said repeatedly that he doesn't care.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he seems to be more concerned though with the
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: election and the Save America Act.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Cheating the election is I would define it. I mean,
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: that's really his focus, and that's because he can't win
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: on the issues. I mean, he's underwater on everything from
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: the economy to the war in Iran. People don't, you know,
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: lack even within the Republican Party, lack confidence in this president.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: And that is an alarming that has to be alarming
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: for them right now, which is why Republicans are giving
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: the president a lot of pressure sure to address all
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: of these concerns, which is why he's going to be
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: addressing the nation on Thursday. It's primarily because he's in
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: the defensive posture and Republicans are looking toward November and
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: are very concerned about how many seats they're going to lose.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: You know, let me, Mimi, let me just tell you.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's so bad right now. Republicans are telling
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: me in the green room of Meet the Press that
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: you know, they could potentially lose places like Kansas, Nebraska.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: I mean places where we're not you know that we're
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: never on our radar that now are competitive races. So
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: from Texas to Ohio to North Carolina and even deep
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: red states like Kansas and Nebraska, Republicans are concerned that
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: they could potentially lose.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: You know, you just mentioned that the president is expected
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: to address the nation on Thursday. So when a president's
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: schedule is a prime time addressed like this, what are
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: you listening for? What do you expect him to talk
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: to the American people about?
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I think what he's trying to do
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: is really you know, and this is having worked in
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: the White House, I know firsthand this is what he's
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: really trying to do, which is control narrative. I think
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: he feels like the narrative has gotten away from him.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: You know, there's you know, more than sixty percent of
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: the nation disapproves of the war in Iran. As I mentioned,
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: ninety five percent of the country thinks we're in an
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: affordability crisis. So if I am the president, I'm going
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: to talk about everything from the war in Iran to
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: the economy. Those are the two most pressing issues that
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: the American people are concerned about. And so I think
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: what I'm going to be listening for is whether or
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: not he can finally piece together a coherent strategy on
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: how to you know, what's the offer ramp, how are
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: we going to get how's he going to get the
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: nation out of this out of this war? You know,
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: he claimed weeks ago that we claimed months ago. We're
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: now four months and he claimed four months, four months
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: ago that this war was only going to take a
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: matter of weeks, and now we're seeing that it's cost
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: upwards of one hundred billion dollars four months later. You know,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: the war, you know, there's no end in sight. We've
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: got thousands of troops on the ground, and you've got
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: a situation where both Democrats and Republicans have voted against
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: the President on this particular issue, a vote sort of
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: no confidence when they voted in favor of the War
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Powers Act. So there's a lot of anxiety within the
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Republican party about this particular issue, and the President is
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: on his back heels. He underestimated their Iranians. I've been
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: saying that for months, he thought that it was going
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: to be as easy as Venezuela. And the reality is
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: they've shown a level of resolve that I don't think
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: the President was prepared for. And he just had no
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: strategic vision. I mean, at one point we were talking
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: about nuclear weapons and then we were talking about the
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: straighta horror moves, So what is it? And the President
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: can't answer any of those questions. And then the reality
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: of all of this in terms of what we've lost,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: not just one hundred billion dollars, not just the lives
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: of our troops, but we've lost our allies. This is
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: the first time in American history our allies are the
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: most distrustful of the United States. So we're going at
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: this alone. So the President owes the American people in
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: an explanation. He needs to reassure Republicans and his party,
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: and I think he's also going to speak to again
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: how to separate the war from the economy and speak
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: directly to what he's going to do on the economy.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: But you know, the President is not a disciplined person,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: not a disciplined man, So I can imagine that midway
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: through any speech he's going to lose focus and you know,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: and it would probably devolve into, you know, something that
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: they're going to have to clean up tomorrow or Friday.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: And Ashley, before we let you go, you recently wrote
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: an op ed for Essence that really caught people's attention.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: What was the message that you wanted readers to take
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: away from that?
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the title of my op ed is the party
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: that we've built, the bill has come due. And so
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: the thrust of the op ed is that we as
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: black people, have repeatedly cycled after cycle, made the difference
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: for the Democratic Party. We've delivered for the Democratic Party.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: The Democratic Party recently released its twenty autopsy of the
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty four election, and what they release was insanely alarming.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: And what it was is that we invest in this
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: party and it doesn't invest back in us. So the party,
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: over its entire ecosystem, from the presidential election to the
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: congressional elections and the senatorial elections, spends about eight billion
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: dollars and only one percent one percent of that money
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: is invested in black people. And so I argue that
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: if we're boycotting Target and all these other places, we
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: should take that same spirit to the Democratic Party. Because
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: if target fails, I can go get my toilet paper anywhere.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: But when the Democratic Party fails, four hundred thousand black
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: people are out of a job, seven point five percent
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: unemployment we're experiencing right now, and our Voting Rights Act
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: has been completely dismantled. So the party owes us an
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: explanation as to how it spends its money, not just that.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: You know, I make three recommendations. One is that the
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: money needs to be spent more equitably. We need to
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: invest that money back into building black infrastructure on the ground.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Every dollar that goes through the Democratic Party is an
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: opportunity to invest it in building black infrastructure. That's black media,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: that's black organizing on the ground, that's black firms. And
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: the reason why this matter is is not because it's
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: to save the Democratic Party, but it's to build black
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: power on the ground. You know, Georgia is the north Star.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Look at what we did in Georgia. Stacy Abrams ran
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: in a program where she invested in black voters, went
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: and found them and ruled Georgia and invested, you know,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: across the entire year, and it made the difference as
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: state went from red to potentially flipping it to blue,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: and that's a possibility of what can happen all over
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: the country when you invest in black voters. So we
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: need to demand that the party pays us like it
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: owes us. The second thing I argue is that we
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: need power sharing any place where black voters are critical.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: We need to be at the table and not in
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: no representation type role, but I'm talking about a role
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: of authority where we make budgetary decisions. And then the
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: last point I make is we've got enough money in
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: our own community where we need to be inward facing
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: in this moment and invest in ourselves. We need to
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: build what I'm calling a Black Innovation Lab where we
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: can come up with black agenda and a new playbook
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: on how to engage black voters. So that's really the
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: thrust of the piece. I wish people could go out
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: and you know, please pick it up, read it. It's
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: a powerful piece and it really makes a lot of
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: exceptional points, which is that we invest more in this
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: party than it invests back into us. That we have
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: become essentially a tool of this party and not a
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: partner to it, and we need to demand more and
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: our leadership. Black leaders need to demand more from the
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Democratic Party because it has an outsize impact on our freedom,
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: our economics, and our political power.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: You know, Ashley, this has been such a helpful conversation.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I've read your op ed. It is wonderful and congratulations
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: on that it's called thank you, Uh the party we built.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: The bill has come due. It's already sparking important conversations
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: about black political power and accountability. And you know, I
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: just appreciate you sharing your insight with us today and
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: just you know, just study shutting some light on you know,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: some of the topics that that we've been covering and
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: just really breaking those down for us. So thank you
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: again for your time.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you for having me. We have to do
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: this again.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: We will do this again. We will do this again.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: This was this was amazing and so but yeah, so
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: think and tell us how how can they find you?
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: How can we follow you?
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: So I'm on Instagram, I'm on TikTok when when I can,
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: when I can, I'm on ex and I and all
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: of my handles are my name, So Ashley Ettien.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: And big thank you to Ashley et Tien for pulling
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: up and having this conversation with us. From Graham's Senate
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: c shake up in South Carolina, to what to listen
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: for in Trump's Thursday night address, to why the Democratic
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Party needs to invest in black communities the same way
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: we invest in it. It was a masterclass. This is
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: the kind of conversation that you share and send to
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: the group chat I Mimi Brown. That was your front page.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: This podcast was brought to you by the Black Effect
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Podcast Network.