Front Burner - Kamala Harris ignites Democrats at the DNC

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

Just one month ago, the Democrats were a deeply divided party, caught in a tailspin after President Joe Biden's disastrous performance in the first presidential debate. But in the wake of him dropping out and endorsing his vice president Kamala Harris, the party has found new optimism about its chances in the next election.All that excitement came to a head in Chicago this week at the Democratic National Convention. But excitement aside – is this still an uphill battle for the Democrats? And what can the convention tell us about the future Harris and her running mate Tim Walz have in store if they win? CBC Washington correspondent Alex Panetta shares his thoughts from the convention floor.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Jamie Poisson. On behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams, and look out for one another, on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written

in the greatest nation on earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America. So that is Kamala Harris formally accepting her party's presidential nomination last night at the closing of the Democratic National Convention. Today on the show, my colleague, Washington correspondent Alex Panetta is back. Alex and I talked in July when he was at the Republican National Convention, when very confident Republicans felt like they were going to just waltz into the White House. Here we are now, and boy, have things changed. Alex has been in Chicago all week, where the DNC was being held, and where all the hype that's been building for weeks around Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, is on full display. I want to talk to Alex

about what the big themes and messages coming from the stage in Chicago tell us about Democratic strategy, what vision of the Democratic Party is being put forward here, and maybe most importantly, vibes aside, whether this is still an uphill battle for the Dems. All right, let's get to it. Alex, hey, great to have you. Happy to be back. So it is 5 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday, and Kamala Harris is not scheduled to give her big speech until later tonight, like we did when we covered the Republican National Convention. You and I are going to reconvene afterward to talk about that. But now I want to talk to you about what's been going on throughout the rest of the week leading up to this. And I'll start with the same question that I asked you a month ago when

you were in Milwaukee. What's the vibe like in Chicago? Look, had we had this conversation a few weeks ago, I would have said this thing would be morose and miserable. The party was in an unhappy place. Donors had shut their wallets. Volunteers, I've talked to a woman who said she wasn't even going to vote for Joe Biden and now is going to not only vote for Kamala Harris, she's going to knock doors for her. It was clear entering this convention that the switch atop the ticket had had a galvanizing effect. And I'm not just talking about a little bump in the polls that Kamala Harris has had. I'm talking about things like a staggering fundraising surge. We've just seen numbers. Kamala Harris has raked in more donations in her first 10 days as a candidate than Joe Biden did in 15 months. And, you know, it's like I said, I'm talking to people who are amped up.

I watched one young man leave the convention hall after the Obamas spoke on Tuesday night, just shouting into his phone saying, you've got to get involved. You've got to raise money. You've got to call your friends. And I'm like, this is what you want if you're a party out of a convention. People are quite energized. Yeah. One thing I wanted to talk to you about is some parallels that have been made and people have been making them for kind of months now. The fact that Kamala Harris is now the nominee is a pretty big turnaround from last month, but it's not unprecedented, right? And that's why a lot of people have been making comparisons with the DNC in 1968. And just what are some of the similarities that we're seeing this year compared to 1968? Why are people drawing those comparisons? Sure. I would say it is unprecedented in the modern primary era, which started in 1972.

A sitting president has basically just, you know, abandoned a reelection bid. And the reason the modern primary era started in 1972 was because 1968 was such a disaster. And what happened back then is you had a president who had had a very successful legislative run. Lyndon Johnson was one of the great domestic presidents in American history past, you know, basically Medicare, Medicaid, civil rights, voting rights. But he was unpopular. And the reason he was unpopular, especially within his own party, was largely as a result of a war in Vietnam. And realizing that he was going to face a brutal re-election fight, even a primary challenge on his own side, he abandoned his re-election bid. I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as

your president. And then the party goes to Chicago. It was held there in 1968 as well, just like it was now. And his vice president at the time, Hubert Humphrey, becomes the nominee, just like Kamala Harris has become the nominee here. That's kind of where the similarities end. Right, because there are a lot of differences. This is this is this convention so far is going a lot differently than than 1968. Right. Absolutely. I mean, for starters, Joe Biden likes his vice

president like Lyndon Johnson did nothing to help Hubert Humphrey. Hubert Humphrey was looking for space on the Vietnam War. He wanted to sort of attack a little bit to the left. And basically, Johnson told him, you better not because you're going to mess up our war effort. He apparently didn't even care if Hubert Humphrey won this election. He apparently had a soft spot for Nixon. The street was just chaotic. Thus, the night that Vice President Humphrey was to receive the Democratic Party's nomination for president was also the night of the bloodiest confrontation. The protests were very, very boisterous, vigorous. People were throwing things at cops. And these are young men and women, or young men at the time, I guess, who were being conscripted to go fight in a war themselves. Right. This was a matter of life and death for people in that street. And police responded just completely violent, just beating these protesters with batons.

The mayor at the time of Chicago, Bill Daley, had no patience for these protesters. Whereas, you know, the mayor of Chicago today, Brandon Johnson, is actually sympathetic to the protesters. The protests, I mean, at least until the time we're speaking, were relatively placid compared to 68. Some people knocked down the fence, but it didn't get anywhere near as violent. And the party is united around Kamala Harris. The party in 1968 was not united around Hubert Humphrey. People wanted the anti-war candidates to prevail. The convention hall was a complete mess.

It was chaos on the floor, not just in the street. I mean, here's a love fest. Yeah. I want to talk a little bit more about the protests that are there right now, though. There are a couple of thousands pro-Palestinian protesters that have been outside the convention. You mentioned it's been peaceful so far. There was a sit-in from some uncommitted delegates over the lack of any Palestinian American speakers on the stage. You know, this might not be as raucous as what happened in 1968, but this is still a big

issue that's kind of hovering over this convention. And just tell me a little bit more about what the protests have been like, the sit-in has been like, and then how the war in Gaza is being dealt with by the Democratic Party. Yeah, sure. So there are two conversations happening simultaneously. One is a foreign policy conversation, a moral question of what the United States should do in the Middle East. And then there's the tactical one, the electoral one. And on the electoral front, I mean, American elections are a game of inches. Any twitch, any tweak in a small percentage of even 1%, parents of hostages, got a rousing reception on the floor of that convention hall. And people chanted, you know, bring them home. In relation to the hostages. And they're wondering why, you know, you couldn't have

Palestinian voices humanizing that side of the Middle East conflict as well, speaking for dead Gazans. And, you know, this was a sit-in, people were protesting. And it's the kind of thing that could cast a pall over the otherwise euphoric aftermath of this convention, depending on how the final evening plays out. So you mentioned Biden before and how he threw his support behind Kamala Harris, which is something that LBJ didn't do. LBJ also didn't speak in 1968, but Biden did. Obviously, earlier this week, he got a four-minute standing ovation. Thank you. I love you. Thank you.

And just something I've been wanting to ask you all week is, Alex, what would you make of how his legacy, his record is being dealt with at this convention? There's still affection and respect for Joe Biden here. He got a reception, like you said, that Lyndon Johnson would not have gotten in 1968. He gave a speech for Kamala Harris, which is something that Lyndon Johnson never did. And his legacy is viewed quite positively, at least when it comes to domestic politics. I mean, you could easily make the case that Joe Biden is the most legislatively successful Democratic president since LBJ, having signed a number of major bills, particularly bills related to domestic manufacturing, reshoring jobs,

and transitioning to green energy jobs at home. It was a part of his legacy he never got to, and that is especially related to lowering the cost of living. You know, he sort of tinkered around drug price reform, but he just couldn't get the votes in Congress, and it's something that OMLRS is working on. But at the same time, like during this week, I have seen people comment that like essentially, you know, from the stage of the convention, people have been in some ways

pretending like the Joe Biden era never existed. Right. And I just wonder if you would agree with that. And if yes, why do you think that that's happening? I agree with part of that. The part I agree on relates to foreign policy. I mean, no one's talking about Joe Biden's Gaza policy at this convention because it's the third rail in democratic politics. It just it basically is so charged and it basically risks tearing the party apart. And so no one's talking about how he handled the Middle East conflict. Definitely not on that on that convention floor. But they're talking about the other things he did. So I kind of agree in part with that thesis, but not entirely.

Okay. We talked a little bit about the vibe shift this party has seen in the last month, but it's not just about the overall energy and excitement around Kamala Harris, right? Because it does feel like we've also seen a big change in tone around their campaign tactics, and in particular, in the way that they talk about Donald Trump. And just generally explain that shift to me. Yeah, it's a shift from outrage to mockery. Groceries, gas, housing, health care, taxes, abortion. Trust Donald Trump and J.D. fans to look out for your family. Shoot, I wouldn't let those guys. I wouldn't trust them to move my couch.

So, Democrats still describe Trump as a threat to democracy. So Democrats still describe Trump as a threat to democracy. You know, as Biden habitually did when we saw some searing videos about the assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. But the campaign is now hitting him in a more prosaic way. It's like through mockery, just teasing him, making him seem small, petty, self-obsessed. It was a recurring theme for Barack Obama ridiculing Trump's obsession with crowd sizes. theme. I mean, for Barack Obama, ridiculing Trump's obsession with crowd sizes. And, you know, we should note that Obama made a mischievous hand gesture referring to Trump's manhood. To Bill Clinton, describing empathy as a key presidential quality. And he says, you know,

the great thing about being president is every day you go into work, no matter how bad the day is, you know that your day could get better because there's a potential to do something good for somebody else. And, you know, he called this election a choice between we the people and me, myself and I for Trump. And one line I think might stick with some people is he says, So the next time you hear him, don't count the lies. Count the eyes. eyes. Count the eyes. Yeah, I mean, Obama kind of got into that, too. That's like this list of grievances and gripes that he talked about. And, you know, Michelle, I thought Michelle Obama gave the most kind of searing criticism of Trump when she just sliced him several times. For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us. See, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard work and highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black.

I want to know. I want to know. Who's going to tell him that the job he's currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs? But the one that stands out to me is when she sort of talks about how, you know, not everybody has the benefit of the affirmative action of generational wealth. She understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward.

We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. If we bankrupt a business if we bankrupt a business or choke in a crisis we don't get a second third or fourth chance if things i don't i wasn't there obviously but it did seem like she kind of took the house down when she said oh absolutely she's she may be the best or in american politics and and which is quite remarkable. She's someone who doesn't even like politics that much from what we understand. Maybe that's the good part. Maybe that's the good part. Yeah.

It was amazing. But I would just I would just add that it what jumped out at me about the speeches from the former presidents is that they represented a tone shift. Michelle Obama's was was was in keeping with the recent Democratic tradition of talking about Donald Trump. These other guys are making it clear that they believe that shifting from the postgraduate level criticism of Donald Trump to the high school schoolyard criticism of Donald Trump might be a more effective tool in attracting votes. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections.

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Alex, with the caveat that I want to go to Tim Walz in a moment, so don't do him now. But any speeches, any videos that really stood out to you that you think are illustrative of the Democratic strategy here that we haven't talked about yet? Yeah, I mean, you saw the party try to drive its messages through personal stories, as parties are want to do with the convention, as Republicans did at their own. In this case, you know, we heard a lot about reproductive rights, and abortion, and gun control. But we also heard some less conventional things. I mean, it was remarkable to see the the not only the number, but the quality of Republican speaker at this convention. You had the former White House press secretary to Donald Trump speaking at the Democratic Convention, Stephanie Grisham, a former national security aide in the White House, two White House officials, and a bunch of other Republicans speaking at this convention,

basically begging Americans saying, do not elect our former boss, calling him petty, vindictive, ignorant, like all the insults in the dictionary, pleading with Americans not to vote for Trump. And that's something that you don't see often at a convention. You'll see party switchers once in a while. Republicans had some former Democratic voters, but two White House officials. I mean, I've never seen that at a convention. Who do you think they're trying to reach with that? Who are they speaking to? at a convention. Who do you think they're trying to reach with that? Who are they speaking to? You know, in politics, there are two types of voters. You have persuadable voters and mobilization voters. The latter, the mobilization voter, is the type of person who would vote for

you if they show up. They're not that interested in politics, but they agree with you. The persuadable voter is the kind of person who will definitely show up. They're engaged, but they don't necessarily agree with you. And they could switch between parties. This was a direct appeal to persuadable voters. People who are generally inclined to vote Republican, but are disgusted by Donald Trump. And we know there are quite a few of them because people kept voting for Nikki Haley

even after she dropped out of the race in the primaries. So that's the person they're trying to reach. All right. Okay, let's do Tim Walls now. So this is a guy that the internet decided they were longtime supporters of since they heard about him just a couple of weeks ago. You talked about trying to get their message across through personal stories. This was certainly something that Walls did when he spoke on Wednesday night. And just tell me a little bit about his speech, what you thought of it, and what you think he was trying to accomplish with it, and if he succeeded. He was speaking to that same group we just discussed, the persuadable voter.

You know, I think it's worth noting that Kamala Harris has had a galvanizing effect on a certain type of voter, the sort of the mobilization voter we just talked about, particularly in the South and the Southwest, you're seeing Democrats numbers improve there. What Waltz's mission is, his assignment is to persuade voters in the North, and in the Midwest, in particular, in those northern swing states. And, and, you know, it's kind of telling that he had, you know, that there was they were handing out signs that referred to him as a coach. Coach Walsh said you had football theme music playing before he took the stage. That's right. Speaking of which, come on out, Scarletts. You had his former players, he was a football coach, a teacher, a former National Guardsman. He had his former players, he was a football culture teacher, a former National Guardsman. And so, I mean, the imagery just spoke to those voters, like working class, you know, centrist, Midwestern voters.

And he used the language of someone just basically talking common sense. He used the word freedom a lot, casting Democrats' agenda through the prism of a word that speaks to this voter, basically that cherishes freedom as an American value. But putting it in the context of things you would not hear at a Republican convention, reproductive freedom, the freedom to go work because your kids have adequate daycare that you can afford and have the government help with that daycare. So it's basically kind of trying to rebrand freedom through the democratic perspective and appeal to these voters in language that they appreciate. Yeah. And you mentioned reproductive freedom. I just will note for people who may not have heard his speech, you know, he has this personal story. If you've never experienced the hell that is infertility, I guarantee you, you know somebody who has. And I can remember praying each night for a phone call. The pit in your stomach when the phone had rang and the absolute agony when we heard the treatments hadn't worked. It took Gwen and I years,

but we had access to fertility treatments. And when our daughter was born, we named her Hope. Hope, Gus, and Gwen, you are my entire world. And I love you. Alex, thank you. We are going to let you go. We are going to come back after Kamala Harris has finished her speech to talk about what we heard, what kind of vision for the future that she laid out. And I think importantly, what kind of battle lies ahead for the Democratic Party here, because this is far from a done deal, obviously. Okay. Talk to you later. Look forward to chatting in the future. All right, Alex, we are back.

It is just after 12 a.m. on Friday. It's Friday now. And let me start by saying that the Internet is currently having a meltdown because TMZ promised us earlier in the night that Beyonce was going to show up tonight. But she didn't. That did that did not happen. You know, I've been speculating with my colleagues for the last two days that Beyonce would be here. As a matter of fact, I started like offering bets to people. And when when there was some sort of teasing of a potential special guest, my offer got up to like 150 bucks and no one took me up on it, which makes me very happy because I would have lost that money. You absolutely would have lost that money. But anyways, there's some very funny jokes on Twitter right now. Okay, so let's get straight

to Kamala's speech. She spoke for 37 minutes. I just want to put that on the record because Trump, as you know well, spoke for 92 minutes last month. But just right off the bat, what were your first impressions? What do you think? What did you think of the speech? Three P's patriotism, personality, priorities. And there was a fourth P that was not there, which was progressivism. priorities and and there was a fourth p that was not there which was progressivism so basically you know what i would say is this this speech uh really was rich with love of country attempting to present herself you know rather than her opponent as embodying their country's greatest traditions um and keep in mind this is at a convention that was basically wrapped in red white and blue i really i'm very patriotic for a democratic gathering. You know, it's the kind of thing you usually see when Republicans get together.

But really, this was a conscious effort to claim patriotic bona fides for Democrats. People were repeatedly chanting USA, USA. You know, she hewed to the Democratic Party's traditional center left lane, support for NATO allies, expanding social programs, opportunity. That's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy, an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed. whether you live in a rural area, small town, or big city. And as president, I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs, to grow our...

You know, like we talked about earlier today, like attempting to redefine freedom abortion access and really a very middle of the road approach uh on on a series of contentious security related issues like border security migration the middle east it's the kind of thing where we basically tried to please both sides of of every argument and it was quite striking in particular on the middle east part president biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination.

But really, I think the main takeaway here is she's trying to contrast who she is and what she cares about versus Trump. You know, comparing her own working class upbringing as a daughter of immigrants with with an opponent. She characterizes basically as an egomaniac born to wealth. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that was a big part of the speech, right? Like she wove her own personal story, her unlikely journey, and really the story of her mother, too. So my mother was 19 when she crossed the world alone, traveling from India to California with an unshakable dream to be the scientist who would cure breast cancer. Through the entire speech, there was this real vibe of her as like the underdog, as someone who has been underestimated. I don't know if you, that really stood out to me.

And the delivery, I think we should talk about the delivery too. What did you think? Yeah, I mean, I thought it was a good speech from a delivery standpoint. I mean, I've noticed, like, I had not paid the most attention to Kamala Harris for a few years as vice president, and then often watch her speeches, which rarely made news. You know, and I was on holiday for a couple weeks this summer, and I got back, and I started really doing the crash course, just looking at all the speeches she'd been giving lately,. I was struck. I mean, she's gotten good. I'm not sure if anyone's going to put this, you know, chisel it into the tablets of the two or three greatest convention speeches in American history. But I think it definitely did the job.

And when you say it did the job, just elaborate for me a little bit more on what you mean by that. You know, what did she have to do? Where are we right now in this race, right? Because this is not a sure thing, like by a long shot, right? And a lot of people think that this is an uphill battle from here. Oh, it's not close to a sure thing. It's a race that is a coin toss at this point. It's a statistical that is a coin toss at this point. It's a statistical tie

between the two. As a matter of fact, her campaign manager, General Malley Dillon, was talking earlier this week at this convention about how Donald Trump is currently polling better than he was at this phase in the 2020 race or the 2016 race. And no need to remind people, these are elections he won and almost won, and he's doing better now in the polls than he was then. So nobody on her team is saying that this thing's over. Alex, what do you think we're going to see from the Harris and Walz campaign moving forward? Just give me a little bit of what you think is coming. Yeah, so there's a real consistency between her speech and the ones given by Bill

Clinton, Barack Obama. And I think that probably speaks to where she intends to go. And it speaks to the thing we were talking about earlier, contrasting her priorities with Trump's. I thought one of the lines that jumped out at me was when she compared her own life path as a prosecutor to Trump's life path. And every day in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words. Kamala Harris for the people. And to be clear, and to be clear, my entire career, I've only had one client, the people. She goes on later in the speech to say Trump has only served one client his entire life himself. And I think to me, that really speaks to where I think she intends to go.

Just basically saying, look, he doesn't care about you. I do. And here's what I'm going to do for you. Yeah, I'll just note she did that again in another part of the speech that I think seemed to really resonate with the crowd when she said that she was going to. I'm paraphrasing, but she was going to fight for the middle class and that it was personal because she was one of them. And I'll tell you, this is personal for me. The middle class is where I come from. My mother kept a strict budget. We lived within our means, yet we wanted for little. And she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us

and to be grateful for them. that were available to us and to be grateful for them. Because as she taught us, opportunity is not available to everyone. Yeah, she talked about growing up in a working class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses, construction workers, who tended their lawns with pride and her mom working long hours,

you know, looking at Trump offering tax cuts for billionaires and his buddies. And it speaks to some of the populist economic policies that she's put forward. She's talked about tax hikes for the wealthy and spending more on social programs, including helping people buy a first home. Some of her critics say it's bad economics. You don't give people $25,000 to buy a house. It's going to raise the cost of the house $25,000 and you're draining the public treasury. But I think she welcomes that debate. She's very happy to have Donald Trump go after her

for spending money to help people get a home. Well, she can say, well, you're going to spend, you know, you're going to drain the public treasury in order to offer people who don't need tax cuts, more tax cuts. Right. But this is we I think we it's fair to say we have more clarity now on the direction that she's going to take this and, you know, what a presidency with her at the home might look like. Alex, we'll let you go, though. It's late. Thank you so much for taking the time. Jamie, from one convention to another, it's always a pleasure.

Okay. All right. That is all for this week. Front Burner was produced this week by Derek VanderWijk, Dreythus N. Gupta, Matt Mews, Allie Janes, Matt Alma, and Zoe Pearson. It was Zoe's last week with us. Thank you so much for all your hard work, Zoe. It was such a pleasure to work with you. Sound design was by Mackenzie Cameron and Marco Luciano.

Music is by Joseph Chabison. Our executive producer this week was Elaine Chao. I'm Jimmy Poisson. Thanks so much for listening. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.