Letters from an American - July 16, 2024

Episode Date: July 17, 2024

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Starting point is 00:00:00 July 16, 2024. The Republican National Convention is a moment to reintroduce Trump and MAGA Republicans to voters who have not seen them up close since at least 2021. So far, the convention has proved that the Republican Party is now the MAGA party. It has not been a smooth unveiling. Yesterday, just after House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, announced that delegates were formally nominating Trump as the Republican Party's presidential candidate, the teleprompter failed.
Starting point is 00:00:44 Unable to continue without it, Johnson quickly left the stage. This was awkward, since two weeks ago, Johnson said on the Fox News channel of President Biden, unless the president is reading off the teleprompter, I don't think he's capable of making these big decisions, and that is something that should alarm all of us. of making these big decisions, and that is something that should alarm all of us. The teleprompter having been fixed, Johnson returned 45 minutes later to introduce Iowa's Attorney General, Brenna Byrd, who in turn began the process of nominating Ohio Senator J.D. Vance for vice president. The last time a Republican vice presidential nominee has been named so late was 1988, and while announcing at the convention has the benefit of generating enthusiasm for the novel
Starting point is 00:01:32 story, it has the downside of bringing an avalanche of opposition. Vance brought the latter. He is very young, just 39, and has held an elected office for just 18 months, making him notably inexperienced for someone in contention for the vice presidential slot, especially behind a 78 year old presidential nominee. In the past, he was a never Trumper saying that Trump might be America's Hitler, might be a cynical a**hole, and is cultural heroine, noxious, and reprehensible. But he came around to embrace the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen and to say that if he had been vice president on January 6, 2021, he would have done what former vice president Mike Pence would not. He would have refused to count the certified
Starting point is 00:02:25 electoral ballots for President Joe Biden. Former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, who was drummed out of the party for standing against Trump's attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, wrote, J.D. Vance has pledged he would do what mike pence wouldn't overturn an election and illegally seize power he says the president can ignore the rulings of our courts he would capitulate to russia and sacrifice the freedom of our allies in ukraine the trump gop is no longer the party of Lincoln, Reagan, or the Constitution. Both ends of the Republican spectrum have also expressed concerns about Vance. The far right has been vocal today about their disdain for Vance's wife, who is the American-born daughter of Indian immigrants. Do we really expect that the guy who has an Indian wife and named their kid Vivek is
Starting point is 00:03:25 going to support white identity? Nick Fuentes asked. On the other side of the Republican spectrum, those who oppose Trump because of his extremism, especially on abortion, are unlikely to have their fears relieved by Vance, who has advocated no exceptions abortion bans, that people stay in violent marriages, and said, we are effectively run in this country by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made. And so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too. But for all the talk of unifying the country since last weekend's shooting, Trump did not pick Vance to bring Republicans together. His selection of Vance reinforces that the Magas have taken over the Republican Party with an ideology that rejects
Starting point is 00:04:18 democracy in favor of Christian nationalism. Vance has repeatedly elevated Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's destruction of democracy in favor of a strong leader imposing Christian family structures, ending abortion rights, enforcing anti-LGBTQ plus policies and encouraging attacks on immigrants, and seizing universities. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, and encouraging attacks on immigrants and seizing universities heritage foundation president kevin roberts who is also aligned with orban and was key to the production of project 2025 which echoes orban's so-called illiberal democracy cheered vance's selection on monday the convention
Starting point is 00:05:01 approved a platform the document that outlines the party's position for the administration they hope to put into power. The evolution of Republican platforms since 2016 shows the evolution of the Republican Party. celebrating the nation and attacking the opposition before calling first for tax cuts, standard fare for Republicans since 1980, open markets, and deregulation of business and finance, as well as a smaller government. It called as well for an end to gay marriage, protection of gun ownership, and opposition to abortion. In 2020, the Republican Party did not write a platform, simply saying that the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the president's America First agenda. In 2024, the Republican Party platform reiterates the points of a Trump rally. Its capitalization is erratic, as his is, and it is full of sweeping and often incorrect statements. Rather than celebrating the country, it warns that we are a nation in
Starting point is 00:06:13 serious decline. Our future, our identity, and our very way of life are under threat like never before. It promises that under Trump, we will be a nation based on truth, justice, and common sense. The only real sign of the old party is the platform's promise to make the Trump tax cuts, which have already added $2.5 trillion to the national debt, permanent. Otherwise, the platform is a MAGA document. It portrays a world that reflects Trump's dystopian vision rather than reality, then promises to fix that dystopia either with vague promises or with culture war victories. In odd passages, it promises to do what Biden has already done, conquer inflation, bring supply chains home, revive manufacturing, and save the
Starting point is 00:07:06 auto industry. The speakers at the convention have largely been MAGA extremists, and the picture they painted of the United States echoed Trump's. They portrayed a country in decline from the heady days of the Trump presidency, but their image was not based in reality. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, for example, claimed that women, black Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans all saw record low unemployment under Donald J. Trump, when in fact those record lows have come under Biden. Former CEO of Yammer, South African David Sachs, echoed Russian talking points when he blamed Biden for provoking Russia to invade Ukraine. Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn attacked racist DEI requirements. CNN fact checker Daniel Dale has been kept busy correcting the Republicans' repeated lie that there is a violent crime wave in the U.S. under Biden.
Starting point is 00:08:05 The opposite is true. Both violent crimes and property crimes have plummeted since the Trump administration. Republicans are also saying that Democrats have eroded the American energy dominance that President Trump delivered. In reality, while Biden is trying to shift the U.S. to renewables, Dale noted that the U.S. under Biden is producing more crude oil than any country ever has. The U.S. is setting fossil fuel world records under this administration. The U.S. produced a global record 12.9 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2023, easily beating the Trump-era high of 12.3 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2023, easily beating the Trump-era high of 12.3 million barrels. Today's speakers included Nikki Haley, a last-minute addition to the program after the events of the weekend, in an apparent attempt to create a sense of unity. She made a good pitch,
Starting point is 00:09:00 but didn't convince everyone. There were scattered boos at her appearance. pitch but didn't convince everyone. There were scattered boos at her appearance. Her speech was the high watermark of the unity effort tonight. The rest of the speakers hammered the idea that the country is divided in two and that Trump's opponents are persecuting him. They singled out the media as a key enemy. The bitter rift between establishment and MAGA Republicans has been evident in other ways as well. Attendees booed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican of Kentucky, when he pledged Kentucky's votes to Trump, from whom he has kept his distance. interrupted CNN journalist Caitlin Collins when she was interviewing former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican of California, to taunt McCarthy by pointing out that he had not been asked to speak, adding that if he had been, you would get booed off the stage.
Starting point is 00:10:02 Gates was behind the move to throw McCarthy out of his office, and he resigned from Congress shortly thereafter. McCarthy reacted by noting that there is an ethics complaint against Gates for sleeping with a minor. Trump has appeared at the convention with a large bandage on the ear he says was pierced by a bullet on Saturday. Journalists have begun to note that there has been no medical report of Trump's injuries, an odd omission after the recent intense scrutiny of President Biden's health. Trump seemed oddly subdued on Monday and appeared to fall asleep during the proceedings. His wife Melania has not yet appeared at the convention. Today, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy's son, Bobby Kennedy III, posted a video of a call Trump made to his father, in which Trump appeared to try to win Kennedy's support, first by appearing to support Kennedy's
Starting point is 00:10:52 opposition to vaccines, and then by suggesting that he could get Kennedy a job. I would love you to do something, Trump said, and I think it'll be so good for you and so big for you, and we're going to win. He also noted that Biden had called him after the shooting, saying it was very nice, actually, and that the cause of the injury he sustained on Saturday felt like the world's largest mosquito. Letters from an American was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dedham, Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.

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