Bulwark Takes - MASSIVE Turnout at Anti-Trump Protests

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

Tim Miller and Lauren Egan talk the massive protests over the weekend with hundreds of thousands nationwide coming out to protest Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the administration's policies. Also, Elizabeth Warren's townhall in Nashville draws in support, and North Carolina State Justice Allison Riggs opponent, Jefferson Griffin, attempts to overturn the results of her re-election. Watch Lauren's interview with Justice Allison Riggs Read Lauren's The Opposition, Big Backlash at Big Law Democrats

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It's a reporter writing about the Democrats and the opposition. And there was much opposition this weekend. On Saturday, there were 1,300 hands-off rallies of varying sizes across the country. Organizers estimated about 600,000 total participants. For a non-partisan estimate, the Atlanta police said there were 20,000 in Atlanta. Gives you a sense for what's happening there. They're in big cities. In Boston, there's a big protest focused on Rumeza Ozturk, the tough student that got swept off the street for an op-ed. In Silva, North Carolina, small town North Carolina, 300 people came together to oppose the national parks cuts in the community.

So it was all different types. And I just wanted to make sure we were covering it and getting a sense for what was out there. And so, Lauren, at the top, what what did you make of what we saw this weekend? Yeah, I think, you know, one organizer texted me and said the opposition is is alive and well and it's re-entered the chat i think there's been a lot of conversation about like where is everyone like why are people not marching on the mall like we saw for the first trump administration so i think you know the the anger is there the energy is clearly there i thought what was most interesting was not necessarily like the dc rally because those rallies are always going to be, you know, you're always going to get people to turn up for this. But some of these like smaller cities, like I think like 4,000 people turned out in Huntsville, Alabama, like 5,000 in Portland, Maine. That's kind of impressive. You know, places like Idaho, there was people out there protesting. Places where you are seeing like a lot of federal workers lose

their jobs for he's mentioned atlanta that's an obvious one so i think this past week we've really seen just like this resurgence of energy um and frustration and anger really bubble up into the public on the left yeah i i think that's right the has re-entered the chat is about right i got into a little trouble with some of the uh some of the commenters uh because love it and i were discussing this very frustration like on the pod i forget if it was last week or two weeks ago just kind of the lack of people in the streets and we were talking about these upcoming protests and the way i framed it then is it kind of felt like you know this was a first step to start incubating these things that like in 2017 there was just this like raw emotion that people were like fuck this and like we're in the streets and it was palpable

and like this time like that like a part of it hasn't really been it right right and so to me it felt like these rallies on saturday were like you know sticking the flag down and saying we are here we are going to fight this we're not going to be scared of this you know, sticking the flag down and saying, we are here, we are going to fight this, we're not going to be scared of this. You know, it might take a little bit to like really, really build. I mean, these are big crowds, but you know, it's not like the massive crowds that you see in like Serbia or like lately in some of these places where, you know, that where people like feel very acute about the threats to their rights, but it is the kind of thing that's like, okay, we can, we can build for for this that was at least my sense does that feel yeah totally and i think people like after the election everyone was so demoralized i mean think about like people are

like i'm turning the news off like fuck this shit like i can't watch it anymore and i think now we're starting to see basically like thermostatic backlash is beginning uh people have recovered a bit um you know just from the like immediate shock of it um and some of the organizers were describing it to me as like this is all about creating muscle memory and so to your point like this isn't just it it's like we got to keep showing up um you know when trump keeps doing crazy stuff like we've got to build that sort of energy and habit of getting out there and protesting uh but also it's it's like it's a long four years um like you know it is um and so

i think there was a sense among organizers like okay right after the election like we've got to be strategic in how we ask people to spend their time when everyone's so exhausted so tired like you need a minute to recover and then get ready for all the organizing that we have to do over the next few years i want to ask you another more of a strategic questions for the organizers but let's like play a couple clips from the rallies for people who didn't get out to kind of see what the vibe was like the thing that jumps out to me is right this is i guess the ban and flooding the zone with shit Hands off! Hands off! Hands off! The thing that jumps out to me is, right, this is, I guess, the ban on flooding the zone with shit thing.

You can just tell, like, from the signs and just from the, you know, these types of protests. It's not like George Floyd, right? Where it's like there's this rallying point around one thing, right? It's like, like we mentioned, it was the national parks for some people. It's the CDC cuts in Georgia. It's fucking people are pissed at elon like some of it is like felt like old resistance 2017 stuff there were some funny signs from old ladies calling trump the c word you know what i mean like it's a little bit and so i do wonder for organizers you know how are they thinking about like do we want to find one inflection point like is elon Elon it? Is one of these other actions it?

You know, or do you want to kind of get as many people into the game as possible by letting the protest be a little bit kind of amorphous in what exactly they're protesting? Yeah, I think the goal is definitely to make it a bit more big tent. Even if you think back to like the Women's March, like obviously that was so focused on women and the pussy hats, like all that kind of stuff. And like, it was a lot of like grounding that and rooting that and like more social issues. And I think now, especially this past week with tariffs and everything and Doge, they feel like you make this big tent by focusing it on pocketbook issues.

And that's going to mean different things for different people in different parts of the country. For some people that might mean, you know, tariffs, for example. for others, it could be that their whole like parks department in Idaho got cut and everyone in this small town is out of a job all of a sudden. So I think the, you know, the organizers, the lens of their, their thinking about this is really like, yeah, those pocketbook economic issues and bring as many people as you possibly can into the tent by making it just about that and that message will again like look different in different parts of the country all right for me it was a good start okay it's good to see folks out there it was a decent week for them you know well i kind of partially because they're starting to organize and get their muscle

and get their backbone and partially because like the administration's fucking things up so bad that they're making it easy for them so you know it's a little bit sometimes being lucky is better than being good i guess i want to talk to you about you also went to an elizabeth warren event uh over the weekend i'd like to ask you about that but since you brought it up what is your like in your sources and when you're talking to dems are people feeling like they're starting to find their footing after the Cory Booker thing a little bit? Like, are you sensing a change in vibe at all? Totally. The Cory Booker thing, people were really excited about that in part because as we know, the parties had a really hard time breaking through any media environment. Obviously,

you know, people saw that. And so there was a lot of uh you know strategists i was talking to this past week they were like finally someone figured out um how to like capture people's attention it only took a few months of us like trying every trick in the book um so you couple that with obviously the tuesday night elections uh that wisconsin supreme court race big deal there's a dems are feeling really good they're feeling like they finally kind of like got their mojo back um but to your point about like it you know it's one of these things where it's like don't get too excited like yes trump is making this easy for you guys but like you still have a lot of a lot of issues that the party internally has to work out and you know some pollsters i was chatting with were like okay we really want to like chill like it's great to

find some hope it's great that we're getting some energy back, but like, let's not forget, like we have a lot of lessons and a lot of things to learn from 2024 and the midterm elections are good. Like there's a lot of, I think, hope that Democrats can take the house back. Sure. Uh, but the margins matter. And so a lot of strategies being like, we got to address all these issues that we've been talking about because it's, it makes a big difference if you win by five versus win by 20 that's entirely different ball game totally agree with with those strategists on that what um so what was the uh scene like at the at the warren uh town hall i was actually surprised by it was a really good turnout for warren um a

lot of people were going where was it sorry i don't think i said that you're in tennessee where was it yeah yeah i was in at this high school in north nashville which is a predominantly black part of town and a lot of people were showing up to the warren event and then going back downtown to where some of these protests were going on um so busy day for for for those folks but it was part of this these events that the dnc is doing um around the country to sort of like highlight uh republicans that are not hosting their own town halls um it kind of felt like for folks there like it was just like a big like you know security blanket type hug like everyone was just like happy to be amongst people who were like you know energized in this moment and pissed off at Trump

um but you know I think when I talk about like Democrats needing to figure some things out that they messed up on in 2024, the Warren rally is a really good example of that. It's this working class area of town, but like everyone in there is, you know, wearing their like Vanderbilt alumni t-shirts and carrying their Parnassus like book bags, which are, that's the Ann Patchett bookstore here in Nashville. so to me that kind of underscored like there's energy here people are pumped but I don't know you're still just reaching like a ton of you know college educated type folks um and there's the party still got some work to do on that what about uh what about her message like what was she focused on oligarch

stuff or some yeah and for her it's like a lot of like you know cfpb um anti-monopoly type stuff um she was like leaning really hard into that obviously that's that's her whole thing and um kind of really going into a bit more like this populist type message that warren's obviously like really known for but uh you know and i chatted with her a bit before before her speech and we were kind of talking about like you know she's like i really think that this is a time for sort of the warrenism brand of democratic politics to have a moment uh like trump and elon musk are making the case for um you know for this anti-monopoly um anti-oligarch type thing that i've been doing my whole entire career all right right. Last thing, unrelated to all of that, but I've been very remiss on the pod by not

focusing very much on the drama around Alison Riggs and the Supreme Court race down in North Carolina. That's getting crazier and crazier. You interviewed her for a while, and I want to put a link to that for people who didn't see it here in the description. But uh just just just really quick like the tldr and what the situation is with that north carolina supreme court race yeah basically it was a really close supreme court race in 2024 the there was multiple recounts allison riggs the democratic candidate won by not that much 700 votes but there are recounts and her Republican challenger has just been like going at it in court with her. Um, and it's just like a giant, giant mess. Um, and essentially, um, you know, when we talk about like elections getting stolen and when we talk about, you know, just, uh, trying to overturn elections, like look

no further than in North Carolina, because, um, looking back now, I guess, at 60,000 votes. They've got to cure them. There's just a lot of chicanery happening. Totally. When I talked to her, she was like, yes, this is just a local race. It's a local North Carolina race, but everyone in the country should be paying attention to it. This is the argument she's making because she's like, this is the Republican playbook. They are testing it out here in North Carolina. If it is successful, her concern, which I think she's very right to say this, is that it's going to be copied in states in the 2026 elections and beyond. And the fact that it's even kind of getting as far as it has is pretty wild.

All right, people. Check out that interview with Alison Riggs. Thank you, Lauren. Thanks, Tim. Have a good one. We'll be talking soon.