Freedom and Suppression at the DNC

Palestinians are denied a time slot on the DNC stage as Gov. Walz reclaims Freedom for the democrats.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Who Zone media, welcome back to it could happen here
a podcast being recorded in Garrison's hotel room, which is
thirty percent of the shopping bags that they got from.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
The Nazi clothing.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
You can't say that.

Speaker 4 (00:19):
You cannot say that.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well, look they don't. They used to be the Nazi
clothing store. Now they just make suits, right right, buddy,
Why are you trying to cancel? It's a nice blazer.
That white blazer you had on last night looks good.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
It is a good blazers.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
It's a good look. He's a good lace. Anyway, we're back.
We're still in Chicago. We are all just exhausted.

Speaker 4 (00:39):
I feel like death.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
I am missing the unhurried, relaxed pace of war zone journalism,
full nights of sleep, long rides and humvies.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Even the RNC felt a little bit more.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Yeah, I'll tell you what it is.

Speaker 5 (00:56):
They were so unbelievably scheduled at the art see where
like you knew nobody was going to be speaking past
ten pm. It was done by ten pm. We were
safely back in our very very bad hotel.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
And the actual physical setup of the event was more.
For one thing, it's smaller, there's more people here, So
that makes but it was also kind of I think
better laid out for walking and stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
I agree, everything is very spread out here.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
The entrances here to it especially take a lot longer
to get into. Now. I think that some of that's
not even on the DNC. It's just the fact that
the DNC has the president and vice president at it,
and so it's going to have more security. But yeah,
it is. It is just fucking exhausting, and I guess
probably the main reason why Garrison and I are so
tired is every day has been many thousands of steps

(01:45):
of walking around Chicago with different protests. So we'll be
talking about all of that. But we wanted to get
into the episode by kind of doing some horse ray stuff,
like actually talking about what are we seeing and polling
what are we seeing in like viewers ship numbers. So
Sophie wanted to start with one of our favorite topics,
the popularity of the various vice presidential candidates.

Speaker 5 (02:09):
Yeah, and like you know, national polls find that like
still that both vice presidential nominees are pretty much fighting
to make themselves known to the US voters. But as
of this week at least, and this is before Walls's
speech last night, so they haven't come back with a
poll just yet. On that pres of this week, Walls

(02:30):
is viewed more favorably than Dvanced, with twenty seven percent
of US adults saying Vance is favorable, forty four percent
find him unfavorable, compared to thirty six percent who think
Walls is favorable and twenty five percent who find him unfavorable.
And interesting to note, more Democrats are supportive of Walls
sixty two percent than Republicans Advance fifty seven percent, which.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Is wild, but also very consistent with what we saw
at the RNC, where Like at the Heritage Foundation event,
which Vance is supposed to be their man, no one
would say a nice thing at him. Like at the
Heritage Foundation event, I could not hear a good word
about JD. Vance the night of his speech, Whereas the
sheer number of dims that I've seen with Coach Walls

(03:14):
signs last night, including people like walking up to and
interacting with folks at the uncommitted demonstration in front of
the Convention Center was like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds,
Like I haven't seen any JD.

Speaker 5 (03:26):
Vans people genuinely liked Tim Walls versus I don't think
I heard a single person at the RNC give any
inclination that they deeply liked jd Vance. Particularly when he
was speaking, people were very much asleep.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
Very bored.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
It's I mean, it's reinforced that, so far, outside of
Biden's stepping down, picking Walls is the best decision I've
seen the DIMS make this year.

Speaker 4 (03:53):
He got a great reaction from the crowd last night.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, So I wanted to talk a little bit about
kind of what we're seeing in Poe. At least according
to Nate Silver's analysis, there's a tiny tick down between
Tuesday and Wednesday and Kamalis chances Visa v. Trump, just
based on some polls that had come out. All of
that's kind of it's you can't really tell if there's
going to be a convention bump until after the convention,

(04:16):
so one way or the other, I wouldn't read too
much into that. What is kind of worth reading into
is the comparative popularity of the DNC televised speeches with
the RNC, And so far from Monday through Wednesday, the
DNC is ahead, and on Tuesday in particular, they were
well ahead with Barack Obama and Michelle both speaking, that

(04:40):
got something like five million more viewers than the comparative
night at the RNC, which is a really significant and
all of these is obviously beating twenty twenty. It's kind
of unclear. The biggest night for the RNC was Thursday.
So we'll see if Kamala can crack the twenty eight
or twenty nine million viewers that Trump got the height

(05:01):
of his event, but so far a sizeable, like maybe
fifteen to twenty percent edge for the DIMS in terms
of viewership. And obviously you have to keep in mind
that like half of the people listening to any convention
are not necessarily supporters of that canon. They're just people
who want to be informed. But it furthers the narrative
that there is a lot of energy behind the DIMS

(05:25):
right now, that kind of like vibe thing that people
have been talking.

Speaker 5 (05:28):
About, speaking of vibes, speaking of vibes, Boy howdy.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
We wanted to end this segment before we get into
the pro Palestine protests and the uncommitted set in that's
still going on at the convention center by talking just
one more time about jd Vance, who while all of
this is going on. Yesterday, as Tim Wallas was preparing
his speech at the DNC, jd Vance visited a donut shop,

(05:53):
and we're just going to play you audio of him
talking to employees at the donut shop trying to get
a photo opportunity or a good video clip. The zoom
has come to town.

Speaker 5 (06:04):
Thank you for what.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
I'm sorry, dude, Okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
She she doesn't want to be on film, guys, so
just cut her out of anything.

Speaker 5 (06:15):
Appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
Man O JD Dance American Vice President. Let's see it.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
Oh, we'll get I mean the beginning as you man. Okay, okay, good?
How about you, sir?

Speaker 3 (06:30):
And almost two years?

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (06:33):
Good?

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Books to everything?

Speaker 4 (06:34):
Yeah, let me a lot of glazed here, some sprinkle stuff,
somebody seven year roles?

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Just what I'm baking this? I let's click for a run.
About four years?

Speaker 3 (06:43):
Okay, how have you been here?

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (06:47):
Good? Quite literally nobody has ever been worse at interacting
with ming beings?

Speaker 4 (06:53):
What is wrong with good? Okay?

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Good? Good?

Speaker 5 (06:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (06:58):
That was by the way in Georgia, Georgia.

Speaker 5 (07:00):
Right, great, I'm jd Vance. I'm running for vice president.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Okay, if I wanted to win Georgia. That was Trump.
Jd Vance is the last man I would send to
the State of Georgia.

Speaker 4 (07:12):
I'm jd Vance.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Oh God, but I'm jd Vance.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Okay, okay, all right.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
It was like that SNL Pete Davidson skit where he
just goes.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
Okay, uh huh and he just orders a random assortment of.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
Don't that's how everyone should react to jd Vance.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Like if he loses, that's going to be the rest
of his life. Is him showing up places going I'm
jd Vance and people going, all right.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
Please stay away from my children.

Speaker 5 (07:41):
Away.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
You're about to tell me that you can't be within
one hundred meters of a school. Yeah, seriously, how that
beard looks anyway? Ads, here's some ads. We're back and yeah.

(08:03):
So the protests have continued. Garrison and I nearly got
arrested during a kettle that wound up being about sixty
It looked like people who were both sighted and arrested.
Most of those people cited and released on the scene.
A couple about two dozen or so actually arrested, including
four members of the press. Pretty nasty scene. Yesterday was

(08:23):
very different. There was a protest March that moved up
to the gates of the convention and then marched back.
There were a couple of moments where like police would
grab people that happened at the train station and detain them,
but ultimately did not significant numbers of arrests, at least
from what I saw, and from talking to people, it

(08:43):
did sound like they were mostly kind of detaining and releasing.
We had not intended to do more protests last night,
just because the first two nights were supposed to be
the largest, and I had not even been to the
DNC until last afternoon actually passed the gate, so we
all went in together. We watched a couple of speeches.
Thank god I got to catch the Bill Clinton speech.

(09:03):
I wanted to miss that Barn Berner.

Speaker 4 (09:06):
Affiliate Bill Clinton.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Oh wow, he sounded almost closer to death than Joe Biden. Yeah,
which was just shocked.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Bison sounds a lot better now. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:14):
He also spoke very early on in the night, and
his speech was so long.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
It wasn't great, and it was bad.

Speaker 4 (09:22):
It was bad.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
I don't know why speech.

Speaker 4 (09:24):
Don't speak for that long if your speech is bad.
But also just like, don't invite him in the first place.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
It's because, probably because of the sheet amount of clout
that the Clintons have within the Democratic Party still to
this day. Because if you don't have Bill there, well,
they also they wanted Hillary, and Hillary did get a
big reaction. And I'm sure Hillary dislikes Bill Clinton as
much as anyone. Sure, but for a variety of complicated

(09:50):
and stupid reasons, you can't both have Hillary Clinton and
exclude Bill and repeatedly attack Trump for his Epstein connections.
It just doesn't work very well, which is why they
shouldn't have had any Clinton's there and hit on Trump
for being a pedophile. But yes, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (10:06):
He spoke for so long I can't set me over
the edge.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
It was fine. It was not like he was just
kind of boring.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
Thankfully, more important things happened, if not inside the DNC,
just just outside, yes, the actual United Center like stadium,
still inside the security perimeter.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
So while we were watching Mindy Kaling talk about how
she should be the ambassador to Italy, which I know
was a bit but I was just not in the mood. No,
we start I start getting like updates from there's a
journalist on the ground, Prem Thacker, who was outside with
some representatives of the uncommitted movement. So the uncommitted movement

(10:45):
started as Democrats who were voting uncommitted in the primaries
in order to make a point about you know, the
fact that there is significant solidarity among the Democratic voters
with Gaza and that if Democrats do not do something
more than a thought and prayers, they won't get those votes.
And particularly Chicago massive Palestinian population, it could be something

(11:06):
that you know, matters in some of the swing states.
So the uncommitted movement has kind of coalesced over the
last couple of months into a group of delegates who
are again we're not talking about like the folks marching outside.
These are not people who are generally like committed radicals.
They're certainly not communists. I heard a number of folks
who engaged with people from the DNC who were and again,

(11:29):
these are members of the uncommitted movement wearing like Palestinian scarves,
who specifically like would say I think Israel has a
right to defend itself.

Speaker 4 (11:38):
Describe these folks as moderate Democrats.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
It's a mix of moderate moderate and like radical Democrat
but give rats right, progressive Democrat. And the point I'm
making about like I heard a couple of them say, no,
I think Israel has a right to defend itself. Is
not that I think that's a particularly valid thing to mention,
but that it shows you the level of rhetoric which
they were taking pain to be speaking within the bounds

(12:02):
of extremely acceptable Democratic Party rhetoric. Right, we are loyal Democrats.
We were very excited. I listened to a couple of
representatives of the movement give speeches. One of them was
Delegate June Rose, which in my initial threat I think
I went with him, but I believe their pronouns are
they them? And Rose basically mentioned this is a quote

(12:25):
from them. When President Biden was the nominee, I felt hopeless.
And this is both because Biden was providing Israel with
bombs and because he could not win. This is a
quote from them. When Harris was chosen, I heard empathy
in her voice for Palestinian suffering. But then June says,
they remembered what Democrats give Republicans shit for saying, you know,
thoughts and prayers after mass shootings. And I thought that

(12:46):
was a valid point to make. Right a month ago,
the fact that Dimm's had really changed their messaging on Gaza.
Sounded like it could be the start of something promising,
but it hasn't led to any kind of like strong
commitment for actually thing actionable.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
Right.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
Just saying I support a ceasefire isn't enough when people
are getting killed. It's not like an actual commitment to,
for example, stop sending his reel arms now. To be
totally fair, I don't want to be flattening this too much.
There have been some significant concessions from the DNC to
Palestinian solidarity movement. Right, not just a number of mentions

(13:23):
and embraces of ceasefires from multiple speakers that got massive
lines of applause, But Sophie, you went to the panel
that the DNC put on with doctors who had just
been working in Gaza, and that particularly.

Speaker 4 (13:35):
It was a verse of its kind panel, and that I.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
Would say, more than people advocating a ceasefire and their speeches,
that's not nothing right like that, that's an actual no.

Speaker 5 (13:45):
And Robert June also posted that over two hundred and
eighty Harris delegates have signed their letter demanding a permanent
ceasefire in arms embargo and says not another bomb, which
is which was one of the signs that they had
last night. So that two hundred over two hundred eighty
Harris delegates, that is not insignificant.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
No, that's and those people you know come here representing
you know, a large, significantly larger number of voters. So
what had happened outside of the United Center is uncommitted.
Led by the co founder of the organization, A Boss
all Away, we're essentially engaging in a sit in. Although
a Boss was was very open about like, I don't
want this to be a sit in. I want to

(14:26):
go home. I'm very tired, my feet hurt. I am
just waiting for a call. We presented the DNC some
time ago. The conversations really started about a month ago.
They were initially trying to get a doctor a five
minute speaking slot at the DNC to talk about medical
care for children in Gaza. That has evolved over time
into they have a list of Palestinian American Democrats who

(14:49):
they were willing to let the DNC pick from and
let them vet a.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
Speech, including some who have endorsed Terras already.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
From what I was listening to, all of this was
very much in the context of and endorsing Harris right.
I've seen a lot of people be like, yeah, but
what if they come up and you know, attack the
Democratic Party and call you know them genocide supporters or whatnot.
And I don't get that feeling from this group of people. Now,
I understand if you're like, well, that's what they should do,
but these folks are not coming at this and certainly

(15:19):
not framing themselves as we are radical leftists. They're framing
themselves as we are normal Democrats who want to see
the Democratic Party acknowledge the humanity of Palestinians and also
start taking real steps to reduce and mitigate the violence
that is really able to do over there. And that's
what these people were standing for.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
And at least in terms of the actuality and ce
like convention at the United Center. The fact that they
do not want to do this and would rather just
continue like this big like party you want.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
To be partying with you is really part of the
vibe that they were getting on.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Sure, And but the dn Z doesn't even want that
to like put at risk this whole vibe shift party
that they have going on, and that is is like,
you know, a massive issue. And similarly, we had we
had videos coming out last night of DNC attendees leaving
the area plugging their ears as people read out like
names of dead Palestinian children. It just creates this overwhelming

(16:13):
like atmosphere that these people don't want to be inconvenienced
by the genocide, and the genocide for them, it just
is a political inconvenience that's prohibiting them from stopping Trump
and prohibiting them from just making this big like Kamala party, and.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
It is it is very much an own goal because
one thing I will say, if I'm trying again, if
I'm trying to be fair, is when I saw people
leaving the event, I saw people who got angry. I
saw people who tried to ignore it. And I also
saw a decent number of people come up and engage
politely and with interest in the people who were doing
a sit in. Yes, and in fact, before the event

(16:49):
let out, there were maybe one hundred people including press,
around the un committed cit in, and it was a
couple hundred when.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
I left, a lot of definitely people who had come out.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
And so it is not it is not fair to say,
but when you have people reading out the names of
folks killed in a genocide, leaving an event and you
get any photos of Democrats leaving plugging their ears, that's
the image that's going to stick with people, right, and
that was obvious going into this. It's a sign number one,
I think of how scared people are of APAC, but

(17:19):
also of kind of the lack of trust that the
DNC leadership has in anyone Palestinian being able to balance
being a Democrat with wanting to end a genocide. And
you know, again, I think that probably a lot of
folks who were outside of the event at the more

(17:40):
radical protests would be frustrated by some of the language
that I heard uncommitted representatives use. But I think that
sit in is having more of an impact than any
of the demonstrations outside right because it's right in the
middle of the DNC. It's impossible to ignore and you
cannot write these people off at as protesters who are

(18:01):
out there breaking the law. You know, there's a guy
with a hes bulla flag. Why are they walking around
the HEAs bull of flag. These are people who's messaging
is as moderated as it could possibly be. They just
want the reality of a genocide to be acknowledged, which
is not a big ask in my opinion.

Speaker 4 (18:17):
Yeah, and did you go to any other protests that night, Robert.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yes, I shure did. Garrison and I had several drinks
at the hotel, which we've been doing because you know,
when you get a chance to sit with your friend
both wearing your nice suit and act world weary at
a political convention, it's really nice. I wish we could
still smoke indoors, Garrison, we'd be four packs of pall
mall into this by now.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
Once we get back to Vegas.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Once we get back to Vegas, CS right around the corner, Buddy.

Speaker 4 (18:48):
I'm so sorry.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
So like at one am, and at one am in
the morning, we go to bed just fucking exhausted, and
there had been sort of word that was supposed to
be some kind of radical demonstration, and it was unclear
exactly what was going to happen. And then right as
I got up to my hotel room, I saw from
one of the reporters I cover on the ground here,

(19:10):
Talia Jane at Talia OTG that a noise demonstration had
opened up outside of the They'd figured out what hotel
Kamala Harris is at and had started doing a noise
demonstration just making as much noise outside of the hotel
as possible. It was like a block away from us.
So down the street I went maybe one hundred people
or so, including one individual with a flute playing as

(19:31):
badly as they possibly could while standing as close to
the police riot line as they possibly care. A hero,
A hero. And yeah, it was interesting because when I
got there, I expected because the police were telling people
to move. They were in front of the President's hotel.
It was one in the morning, and they were being
very loud in front of people who have money, So

(19:53):
I kind of expected, Okay, wagons are going to come
in and people are going to get the absolute shit
beat out of them. But nothing happened. The cops didn't
even keep a tight cordon. There was clearly no as
we saw last night, there was no walling in the protest.
There was no sign that they considered this something that
needed to be met with a significant degree of force.

(20:14):
I kind of think some of it, maybe that they
were tired too, because they looked exhausted, So I wonder
how much of it is that. I think it also
they got surprised, as opposed to yesterday, where they came
in knowing Okay, this is supposed to be a radical
militant demo, so we're going to have an overwhelming force response.
I think they just had some teams show up and
kind of catches catch can handle the event. But you know,

(20:37):
they played around outside of Harris's place for thirty or
forty minutes and then marched on and dispersed, and it
was fine. No arrests that I saw whatsoever, pretty calm night.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
And I believe the actual hotel she was staying it
was actually like a one or two blocks over they
it was fortified. It's a fortress, right.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
You're not going to get that close.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
It's the Secret Service like headquarters essentially. Right, the vice
president is sleeping in the building. There's not gonna be
protesters directly outside on the sidewalk. They're gonna have some
kind of radius. People got as close as they could
to what they believed the hotel was, but you know,
it's not like they're going to be thrown eggs on
the window of the vice president.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
No, And I didn't even see any implication that people
wanted to do that. I have not, at any of
these demonstrations seen any sort of cohesive committed property destruction
or even like a hint that people are thinking of property.
These are and in part because I think most of
the people have seen have been younger. They seem to
be newer to this kind of protest. It seems like

(21:34):
a younger movement is the core of things here, and
I don't think if they ever do, I certainly they
have not yet psyched themselves up to that kind of
direct action.

Speaker 3 (21:44):
Yeah, all right, we will go on an ad break
and come back to hear about a few of the
other speeches that took place last night at the DNC,
including Governor Tim Walls to the window.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
Okay, we could, so we're back. I did want to
note before we get into this that Texas delegate who
was in the South side of Chicago got robbed last night.
Oh yes, which is not surprising because the South side

(22:15):
of Chicago is the baddest part of town. And as
I was warned before coming here, if you get down there,
you'd better be aware of a man named Leroy Brown.

Speaker 4 (22:23):
All right.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Anyways, Garrison stands about six foot four, so this.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
Week has lasted a month.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
I've aged all the downtown ladies call him treetop Lover.
But before the men just call him sir if you
were curious about his pronouns. I'm just trying to make
sure that.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
We refer to the theme for Wednesday Night inside the
DNC was a fight for our democracy and with like
a big emphasis on like trying to maintain the freedoms
that we now have. There's a lot of we're not
going back chance that kind of stuff.

Speaker 4 (22:52):
A lot of speech is focused on redefining freedom.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
Yes, and curious this is this is kind of part
of like this like liberal reclaim, like Patriot has been
freedom that I've kind of been talking about these past
few weeks.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
It's probably the smartest thing they could be doing.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
Yes, So this was kind of the main push not
only how Democrats will continue to secure these freedoms, but
if Trump is elected, these freedoms will be gone and people.
The judge gave an okave speech, you know, talking about
how his current life being married with kids was like,
you know, impossible twenty five years ago, and if Project
twenty twenty five gets enacted, it will be no longer

(23:28):
possible anymore. So like a lot of stuff kind of
like that. Oprah Winfrey showed up and gave a very
long speech.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
I did have a moment of very jarring disconnect where
as I listened to the boss who was openly weeping
talking about his grandmother having to flee her home in
Lebanon as it was bombed. And then I look up
as this man is crying on the ground talking about
his grandmother fleeing bombs and there's Oprah Winfrey's giant head
speaking on the JumboTron above me.

Speaker 4 (23:57):
Yeah, similar to the R and Z.

Speaker 5 (23:58):
What the crowd startage to USA, USA, USA during Oprah's speech.
I I got one of what those alerts said my
smart watch that my heart was wast was a little.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
Too high, which again very funny. That's all that it
takes to trigger my poor little heart.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
I got supplement, Sophie, let's take though.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
And then even though there's just all this like you know, freedom,
democracy stuff, it was also some of the most conservative
speakers of the night were also here. There was there,
There was a few police officers. There was a shriff
talking about the border and how how Trump killed the
most secure border bill. Even though they're denying any any
Palestinian to speak on the main stage, they are inviting,

(24:41):
like former Trump co workers, a shriff, police officer. So
all of these guys are speaking, which people are are
similarly pointing to, is is, you know, showcasing what exactly
the DNC I think actually cares about right now? But
I think that's I just want to go straight over
to mister Coach Walls. Right before he came out, volunteers

(25:04):
at the convention center were handing out these big Coach
Walls signs. There must have must have been thousands of
them just handing them out to like everyone on the floor,
almost everyone in the stands, just the whole the whole
stadium was full of people holding these big Coach Walls signs.
He comes out into stage and people seem to really
like him. He gave a short but sweet speech. I
guess he was one of the most efficient speakers of

(25:25):
the night. He talked a lot about schools and how
how schools are kind of one of the big battlegrounds
for freedom right now because he used to be a
teacher for you know, geography as well as as well
as football. He had this line that instead of instead
of banning books, we've been banishing hunger in his schools.
How he signed that free lunch bill. Meanwhile, all these

(25:46):
Republicans are just trying to ban science books, ban social studies,
and he's giving kids free food. So a lot of
stuff about protecting schools, a lot of stuff about empowering
teachers that got great reactions from the crowd. So I'm
sure there's plenty of teachers here at the DNC.

Speaker 4 (26:00):
Sure.

Speaker 5 (26:01):
Speaking of crowd reactions, Joe Biden was very briefly mentioned
in the thank You Joe chance that normally go on
for a very long time.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
They've been getting shorter, getting shorter, shorter, getting shorter and shorter.
It was quite.

Speaker 5 (26:13):
Literally thank you Joe once and then thank you, and
then he kept talking and the chance ended.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
So yeah, the part along to weaning themselves off of
hair Joe in so Walls could.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
Walls's approach in his speech was similarly on this like
freedom and democracy theme. One of the reoccurring talking points
he used was back in either Minnesota or Nebraska, because
he's lived in both places. Their golden rule is to
mind your own damn business, and that's kind of his
his stated approach to a lot of these things. It's
like Republicans are trying to get up into your business.

(26:50):
The Republicans talk about freedom but what they really mean
is freedom for the government to get involved in your
own business. Yes, saying that the Democrats are going to
not do such a thing where we're going to keep
the government out of your doctor's office. We're going to
provide reproductive freedom. That that's kind of the messaging that
he kept using because consistently throughout the night about being
a good neighbor, calling you know, stuff like Project twenty

(27:11):
twenty five, an agenda that no one has really asked for,
but Republican like oligarchs are trying to force upon the
nation just to get more involved in everyone's lives. And
this is something that me and Robert we're talking about
kind of back in the hotels. Everyone really likes like
libertarian messaging. Yeah, Like this style of messaging always plays

(27:32):
very well. People just don't like actual libertarians and they
don't like, you know, lots of like libertarian like you know,
urban policy, right, but this style of messaging typically plays
really well. It is something that Republicans have been using increasingly,
like since like the Tea Party and stuff, and because
the Republican Party has has gotten much more authoritarian over
the years. I think it's interesting to see the Democrats

(27:53):
are starting to realize that they can actually weaponize this
style of framing themselves to a very good reaction. You know,
this is where we get these big we're not going
back chance.

Speaker 5 (28:02):
He in one of his many sports metaphors, he said,
when somebody draws up a playbook, they're going to use it,
referred to Project twenty twenty five, and the crowd loved that.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
A lot of sports references that I saw many sports
reference I did not really get.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
But that's okay, cause you guys don't like the only
real sport.

Speaker 5 (28:19):
In this line, I was translating all the sports references
to Robert, you don't know sports.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
I know football, great, sob Anyways.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
He also talked about things that Kamala has helped fight for,
including fighting big pharma, security rights for workers, healthcare, and housing.
There's are just a few of the actual kind of
still not not super big policy things, but hinting towards
policy things that Democrats had gotten closer to over these
last few days as they did release their actual like
DNC party platform. And finally, the kind of last thing

(28:49):
I want to mention is that with like buddhaj Edge
and a few a few other like LGBTQ speakers. You know,
Walls talked about how he sponsored the Gaystraight Alliance in
the nineties and that under his and Kamala's watch, the
government's gonna stay out of your bedroom. Similarly, you know,
going back to this like freedom messaging, but there has
been these few mentions of like, you know, keeping the

(29:10):
government out of the bedroom.

Speaker 4 (29:11):
And like doctor's appointments as well.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
Doctors appointments and and and not regressing on LGBTQ rights.
There's been very little actually talked about positively about helping
secure the LGBTQ rights that are currently like actually a jeopardy,
like specifically like trans healthcare. Like there's not been a
trans speaker at the DNC. I've heard almost no mention
of trans issues on any of the speeches or any

(29:34):
of the or any of the panels. And that this is,
I guess just slightly. I don't know. I guess I
was expecting something, honestly on this because this is such
a big topic for Republicans, because there was consistently every
night mentions of trans people at at the RNC, I
was expecting at least some degree for the DNC to
like push back on that. And be like, no, we
actually are gonna make sure we have health care for

(29:57):
trans people and make sure that trans people are not
and fairly discriminated against. And they have just sidesteped this
whole issue, and that has been that's that's not great.
That is that is another thing as well as Palestine
to push them on, because this is like literally one
of the core parts of the Republican Party right now
is attacking the ability for trans people to not only

(30:18):
get healthier, but it's just to exist in public life.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
And it's specifically something Walls has a really good record on.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
Yes, some of these people do have a good recordation.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Ban and stuff, so it's not something that they have
shied away from in their own electoral history.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
But at least at the DNC, they're not putting it
on like the national stage, and maybe they think it
won't play well. Maybe they think it's a little bit
too weird for some of the people that they're trying
to kind of court their votes for. I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
I wonder if the calculation is a little different. The
only direct references I've heard of trans people have been
as part of LGBTQ. I wonder if there's a degree
of strategy where they're thinking, like the smart way to
play this is to reconnect trans people with LGBTQ as
opposed to deal with it as if there's some sort
of like separate thing going on. I wonder if that's

(31:03):
a calculation that they're making. I don't know, but you're right,
it is kind of It is very conspicuous in its absence.

Speaker 3 (31:09):
I mean, we just had this massive flare about the
Olympics with this like increasing like trans panic stuff, and yeah,
it's just something I've observed the past few days that
we'll see if we'll see if there's anything Tonight, I'm
going to try to talk to the people who've been
at the LGBTQ caucuses these past few days.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah, I want to end by just as we're recording this,
it's come out Mother Jones is published at the text
of the speech that the Uncommitted Movement wanted to give
it the DNC. This was from rep Rua Roman was
supposed to be the one giving this and this was
like specifically turned down by the Democratic Party And I
want to read a couple of paragraphs from it just
to give you an idea. Again, make it very clear

(31:45):
the actual kind of rhetoric, and how modest it is
that these people are using in this pain. I've also
witnessed something profound, a beautiful, multi faith, multiracial, and multi
generational coalition rising from despair within our Democratic Party. For
three undred and twenty days, we've stood together, demanding to
enforce our laws on friend and foe alike, to reach
a ceasefire in the killing of Palestinians, free all the

(32:07):
Israelian Palestinian hostages, and to begin the difficult work of
building a path to collective peace and safety. That's why
we are here, members of this Democratic Party, committed to
equal rights and dignity for all. What we do here
echoes around the world. They'll say, this is how it's
always been. That nothing can change. But remember Fanny lou
Hamer shunned for her courage, yet she paved the way
for an integrated Democratic Party. Her legacy lives on and

(32:30):
it's her example we follow. But we can't do it alone.
This historic moment is full of promise, but only if
we stand together. Our party's greatest strength has always been
our ability to unite. Some say that as a weakness,
but it's time we flex that strength. Let's commit to
each other, to electing Vice President Harris and defeating Donald Trump,
who uses my identity as a Palestinian as a slur.
Let's fight for the politics long overdue, from restoring access

(32:53):
to abortions, to ensuring a living wage to demanding an
end to reckless war and a ceasefire in Gaza. To
those who doubt us, to the Senate and naysayers, I say,
yes we can. Yes, we can be a democratic party
that prioritizes funding our schools and hospitals, not for endless wars,
that fights for in America, that belongs to all of us, black, brown,
and white, Jews and Palestinians, all of us, like my
grandfather taught me together Jesus Christ. Yeah, it's the least

(33:18):
objectionable thing I can imagine. Yeah. So, anyway, that's what
the DNC didn't want people to hear.

Speaker 4 (33:23):
Very despicable.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Yeah, yeah, it's pretty frustrating.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
Yeah, well, this is how we're going to be closing
this week of coverage. We will start next week's episodes
by talking about the final day of the DNC, including
Kamala Harris's speech. And I also have some kind of
disjointed thoughts I'll try to put together more about some
of like the discourse revolving around some of these protests,
how they've been handled a few like tactics things. But yeah,
this has been this week at It could happen here, yep.

(33:48):
Recording from Chicago, Illinois. Nice exhausted, Well.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
You guys, listen to the speeches. I'm going to try
to find Jake Tapper at the Politico Bar and Grill
and uh, you know, read him the lyrics of ad
Badle Roy Brown. Let us know all that baddest man
in the whole damn town.

Speaker 5 (34:04):
Normally I would I would be against abandoning you at
a big public event.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
But see you, it's fine. If it turns into a fistfight.
I feel confident we all do it. I feel very
confident I can win.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
If you're getting close to Jacapper, it's going to turn
into a fistfight. We all know this, all right, Bye,
bye horrible.

Speaker 4 (34:28):
It could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.

Speaker 5 (34:31):
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
cool Zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can find sources for it could happen here. Updated
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Speaker 4 (34:45):
Thanks for listening,