Pod Save America - To the Winfrey, to the Walz (feat. Gretchen Whitmer)

Episode Date: August 22, 2024

Tim Walz gives a model acceptance speech in front of thousands of roaring delegates, his beaming family, and the football players he coached. Oprah Winfrey makes a surprise appearance, RFK Jr. plans to drop out and endorse Donald Trump, and Trump complains about Barack Obama's "nasty" criticisms. Then, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joins the pod to talk about how Kamala Harris can win Michigan, and the Harris campaign's Michael Tyler talks about their strategy for the final sprint.

This week we're going all out for the Democratic National Convention. Here at Crooked Media, we're giving Friends of the Pod subscribers access to a ton of behind-the-scenes content and community events, including a DNC subscriber live chat, a new subscriber exclusive segment featuring me, John, Tommy, and Dan, four, count them, four back-to-back ad-free episodes of Pod Save America recapping the biggest convention news of the night, and brand new episodes of Inside 2024 and Polar Coaster. It's going to be a hell of a week for content and as a bonus we'll have a Democratic Party nominee by the end. Pretty good deal. Get all of our exclusive DNC content and more when you

subscribe to Friends of the Pod. Head to kirkat.com slash friends to sign up now. Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. I'm Tommy Vithorn. We are back here at the United Center to recap night three of the Democratic Convention. Back here. I'm not sure we've ever left. We have not left. I've been here for most of my life now. Yeah, most of our lives and most of that was a Bill Clinton speech. On today's show, on tonight's show, Governor Tim Walz delivers a blockbuster convention speech here in Chicago Donald Trump is not happy about Barack Obama and other Democrats being mean to him and

RFK jr. Reportedly plans to drop out of the race and endorse Donald Trump This all happened while we were running around today I barely even know what happened here take one second away to play corn hall with Harry Enton in the CNN Grill. You missed all this news. That's real by the way. That's real. What I'm describing is real. Stay tuned to CNN. Plus, Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Harris Campaign Communications Director Michael Tyler stopped by. But first, another night of the convention, another night of joy and democratic unity. This one was packed with democratic stars.

Mayor Pete, Josh Shapiro, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, and also fucking Oprah. We have Oprah, surprise guest. She's so good. And the night's headliners, we have Bill Clinton and of course, Tim Walz. Let's start with Coach Walls. Just an absolute banger of a speech. Uh. Uh. Uh.

Guys, we've, listen, every night we say we're not gonna drink as much as we drank the night before, but then we're so tired from the drinking from the previous evening, that the drinks are getting bigger as we get later into this event. No, you have it wrong. We waited to drink earlier, the last couple nights we waited to drink later. Tonight we were like, let's just start earlier. Yeah, that's right.

You can hear that in the recording. Anyway, let's listen to Coach Walls accept the vice presidential nomination. So there I was, a 40-something high school teacher with little kids, zero political experience, and no money running in a deep red district. But you know what? Never underestimate a public school teacher. And we made sure that every kid in our state gets breakfast and lunch every day. Other states were banning books from their schools. We were banishing hunger from ours. When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean that the government should be free to

invade your doctor's office. Corporations free to pollute your air and water. And banks free to take advantage of customers. But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love. Freedom to make your own healthcare decisions. And yeah, your kids freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall. Clip and save it and send it to your undecided relatives

so they know. If you're a middle class family or a family trying to get into the middle class, Kamala Harris is going to cut your taxes. If you're getting squeezed by prescription drug prices, Kamala Harris is going to take on Big Pharma. If you're hoping to buy a home, Kamala Harris is going to help make it more affordable. And no matter who you are, Kamala Harris is going to stand up and fight for your freedom

to live the life that you want to lead. Because that's what we want for ourselves and it's what we want for our neighbors. You know you might not know it but I haven't given a lot of big speeches like this. But I have given a lot of pep talks. We're down a field goal, but we're on offense and we've got the ball. We're driving down the field. And boy do we have the right team. Kamala Harris is top.

Kamala Harris is experienced and Kamala Harris is ready. Our job, our job, our job, our job for everyone watching is to get in the trenches and do the blocking and tackling. One inch at a time, one yard at a time, one phone call at a time, one door knock at a time, one five dollar call at a time, one door knock at a time, one five dollar donation at a time. And as the next president of the United States always says, when we fight, we win! When we fight, we win! When we fight, we win! Thank you. God bless. Coach Walls got the assignment. Great.

He knew what to do. What'd you guys think? You know what I loved about the speech? First of all, if you put a bunch of washed up, middle-aged high school football players on a stage, you got me. You're speaking my love language, Tim Walls. That was how they opened it.

They brought out their state championship football team in their jerseys, looking great. But then he focused most of his bio on being a coach, being a teacher. Why? Because people like coaches and they like teachers. They don't love politicians all the time. He talked about some of giving free school lunches to kids

and other legislative accomplishments, but he connected as a human being. He just came away authentic. He got calmer as the speech went on and more conversational in the delivery. It was just excellent. And you know, he had a line in there where he talked about the hell of infertility

and hearing that part like started to get me choked up. But then they cut to his kids who were crying and beaming and saying like, I love my dad. And like everyone in this room started weeping. It was just incredibly emotional. It was the first time I welled up the entire convention. Me too, me too. Me too, yeah, first time for me too.

When Monday night went after 11.30, I started to cry a little bit. Yeah, no. Different reason. Yeah, there's also just, there's no faking what Tim Walz is. And that moment, it was also funny because they cut to Hope and she's making the heart and it cuts to Gus. And Gus is just weeping and just like get on his feet saying, I love you, dad. It was it was funny and beautiful and real.

And you just think it's like a high school football movie. Yeah, that's what it was. His shirt was on top. I'll tell you where it hits me home. It is older sister little brother energy and then you compare that to the like capital from the Hunger Games vibe of the Republican National Committee of all these kind of plastered fucking Botox grins of people that barely can aren't speaking terms pretending to be a family for one fucking night JV Vance in a basement on his laptop

in some fucking weird chat room. That's right, that's right. Also it was a pretty tight speech. Incredibly tight. And the message was clear. He said right at the top, maybe like the third or fourth line, we love this country, we help our neighbors,

we believe in a country where everybody belongs and everybody has a responsibility to contribute. And then he told the to contribute and then he told the story and then he told a story about why Kamala Harris will be a great president and why she'll help people and why this whole campaign is about helping people and why this country can be about everyone helping each other and lifting each other up and turning the page on all the bullshit divisiveness of the last however many years with Donald Trump in our lives. it was fantastic. The way this process goes often is the campaign manager,

political strategist, message person, the candidate, the speechwriter will sit down and the strategist will say, here are the five things we need to accomplish. In the room, the candidate will agree to that. Then the speechwriter will go write a speech that does those things. Then the candidate will get ahold of the speech and they will decide to do crazy self-indulgent shit.

This was like, he checked the box on every single thing that if I had been in the room I said, this is what Tim Walz had done in his speech. Introduce them to the nation, right? Make the case for Kamala Harris. Do on very specific anti-Trump stuff. One of the challenges that Democrats have is that Donald Trump is not getting the blame he deserves for Dobs and there's a CBS Poll this weekend that shows that majorities of voters and majorities of independents do not believe that Donald Trump will pass a federal abortion

ban or try to ban abortion nationally and really believe his leave it to the state's bullshit. So you got to do that. He wants explicitly at that. Project 2025 he goes at that and then he does something which is just so smart, which is to pick the moment, he picked the moment that was the most repressive moment and told people to send it to their relatives. Yes. And then he ends the speech giving people specific tasks

of things to do to win the election. Knock on doors, give $5. It's like soup to nuts. It just hits all the strategic high points for a campaign speech. And just one thing I didn't he said clip this part and save It and he reminded me of being at the supermarket with my mother when the checkout lady would see like Hand you have a coupon like it was that kind of vibe. I wouldn't say it was like the exact right for a bitch But that's also

There's also something just said like about the why that speech was so excellent I love that. There's also something just said like, about why that speech was so excellent. There's an interview some celebrities have been giving about how Hollywood used to think IP wasn't just Marvel Comics, but like, your suite 16 was IP, right? IP were things that happened to actual people.

And so often, in speech writing, people think you need to use cliches to convey basic values, that you use cliches to convey like basic values. That you use the cliche to to get at the values underneath. But that was a speech about values and it didn't have a lot of cliches. It expressed the values through his experience and his own words. And if you do that well enough, you make a new cliche. You make something real from your actual experience that conveys the values. It goes the other direction and it was a lot better. There was some, you know, Tim Walls,

that was one of the best speeches we've ever heard. Don't you say it's better than Doug and Muff. Uh-oh. No, it's, it's good. Doug versus Tim, we love it. But it's close. But that was an incredible speech by the vice presidential candidate

and it would have been better if it had been an hour earlier. And one of the reasons it wasn't, because there's a lot of indulgent people spreading a lot of fucking pablum out there. We have this later in the program. Okay, I'm just, sorry, you're right. You just couldn't wait.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm good now. You're right about the imagery. Like they weren't cliches, but he was like, it's the fourth quarter, we're down a field goal, we have the ball, like you paint a picture, you see that in your mind's eye, and you imagine Tim Walsh like hiking the ball.

He's probably the center in this scenario, if we're being honest, not the quarterback. And that's what I saw. Well, and also, that fits him this scenario, if we're being honest, not the quarterback. And that's what I saw. Well, and also that fits him, right? Like if another speaker tonight used that imagery, it'd be like, what are you doing? That sounds so cheesy, but like it fits him so perfectly. Which is the whole point of like why,

if you wanna deliver a great speech at a convention or anywhere, like you can't just look at other good speakers and be like, I'm gonna copy that. You have to do something that is true to you, right? And like Tim Walz, you have to also have the confidence to know that like you can deliver that speech and you can figure out like what's what fits you best and just go for it. And Tim Walz clearly had that confidence. What we saw in that clip when he was like you know you might not know that I don't give a lot of big speeches like this, it's like, yeah, he doesn't,

but he seems like he does. He does, but you also, by the way, like just, you see him and like he's bouncing between the two sides of the teleprompter, like you would notice he's an incredible speaker. But like he is new to doing that and there's a rawness to it and an authenticity to it that carries through because he just,

I mean, if Tim Walsh didn't exist, you'd have to invent him. He does the aw shucks thing, like I'm not used to this. And there was reporting that one of the things he talked about with Kamala Harris when she chose him is that he'd never used a teleprompter before. The first teleprompter speech he ever gave was at that rally in Philadelphia when it was announced.

Like a couple weeks ago. And then his confidence and comfort in his own skin just grew and grew and grew. That is a very rare thing. It's so funny, it's like JD Vance is gonna stand across, he's Simone fucking Biles. It's like, yeah. I was just thinking that, it's like JD Vance is gonna stand across from me. He's Simone fucking Biles. I was just thinking that I'm like if if I was JD Vance and I was his team like I think the only way to advise him to debate Tim Walz is to just like do your own thing talk about your own policies

talk about like why their policies aren't good for people, that would be the smart thing. That's the only thing you can do. You can't do that for Trump though. Right, you can't do that for Trump. And I think any, being mean to Tim Walz and trying to poke at him through a whole debate, it's just, that strategy I think will feel spectacular. It is just so funny now having watched this speech and watched the last few weeks of this campaign,

that the Republicans' initial plan was to make Tim Walz a radical liberal So funny he shot a pheasant on video I know this the students and the football players and everything it's like Oh, yeah, that guy doesn't seem like a radical liberal to anyone who watched that. All right tonight's other headliner Bill Clinton who delivered a healthy dose of that famous Arkansas folksiness Here's a sampling two days ago. I turned 78 the oldest man in my family And the only personal vanity I want to assert is I'm still younger than Donald Trump

She will break my record as the president who spent the most time at McDonald's. Next time you hear him, don't count the lies. Count the eyes. What are they supposed to make to these endless tributes to the late, great, Hannibal Lecter. President Obama once gave me the great honor of saying I was the explainer in chief. Folks, I've thought and thought about it and I don't know what to say. Take it from a man who once had the honor to be called in this convention, the man from Hope, we need, we need Kamala Harris, the president of joy, to lead us. What do you think of the explainer in chief?

Anyone? Wait, wait, you know, I think there's some good parts. He was supposed to speak for 12 minutes, he spoke for 25 minutes, something like that. Was it 25? Chief? Anyone? You know, I think there's some good parts. He was supposed to speak for 12 minutes. He spoke for 25 minutes, something like that. Was it 25? I don't know. Did we land at 25?

I don't know. It was double the length, which is pretty standard for Bill Clinton. That's fine. That's fine. Anybody that pushed him walls out of prime time, I'm not a fan of tonight. That's it.

They're on your list. That's it. Hakeem Jeffries, too long. Jesus. Not speaker of the house yet. I think I enjoyed the breaking my record as the president who spent the most time in McDonald's. Joke, that was a very Gen X slash mostly Gen X joke.

Maybe us. Yeah, we're close. We get it, but it's mostly Gen X. Gen X and elder millennial nerds. I think he has some political talent. Boomers certainly get that. Boomers are still around. He warmed up as he went.

You forgot the boomers. Yes, yes, for sure. I think it started a little slow in meandering. I was kind of like, where are we going with this? By the end, I thought it got stronger. It did? It had some good lines. It was the one speech that improved the most

over the course of the speech. Yeah, the lighter moments were great. Yeah, he did take him a beat to warm up. I think the more rhetorical parts didn't totally, I was like, okay. But then the parts where he was like like that kind of old Bill Clinton charm, where he's sort of kind of like stepping back and be like, what's going on here? It's actually kind of Obama's too. I thought it worked.

I mean, there, there's political value in it, right? I mean, there are a lot of people who vote for Trump who also voted for Bill Clinton, right? And we know there's, and this was true for, it was part of Bill Clinton's super power. It's still true now is that a white guy with a Southern accent endorsing Kamala Harris helps. And we just know like from pure numbers she has gained with all parts of the Democratic coalition. The big question is will she hold, the only way to make the math work, that's we're going to dramatically over perform with black voters or Latino voters, is to hold Biden's share of white voters, particularly

non-college white voters. And that's a group that has voted for Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton has credibility and credence there. And a lot of, you hear this in some of the people talk, it's like they missed the Democratic Party of Bill Clinton. And so that explains why he was on stage tonight. And that's the sort of the value of that. I also thought he made an important point about, because this has been driving me crazy for a long time,

about that we're, he basically said, that line where he said, don't count the lies. I was just about to say that, so I'm glad you're saying it. It's been driving me crazy for a long time, about that we're, he basically said, at least that line where he said don't count the lies. I was just about to say that, I'm glad you're saying it, it's been driving me crazy too. Because everyone knows Donald Trump's bullshit, they've always known his bullshit, that's not what is going to defeat him, is you have to go beyond that, right? And just to put a fine point on this, like it is, it is important to fact-check Donald Trump, to acknowledge, especially for reporters and journalists to acknowledge that we want Daniel Dale to eat we want Daniel Dale to eat right we want all the fact-checkers we want to know she lies but a Super majority of voters believe that Donald Trump is dishonest But he is not losing by a super majority of voters, right?

Like so there's like 60% of voters think he's a dishonest person, but he's still like, you know He's it's a it's a pretty close almost tied race for voters, right? So there's like 60% of voters think he's a dishonest person, but he's still like, you know, it's a pretty close, almost tied race for president, right? Which- And they think most politicians are liars. Yeah. Exactly, so they think most politicians are liars, and all the energy we expend on, but he's a liar,

but we gotta call out the lies, but the headline doesn't call out the lies, and the story doesn't call out the lies, and why don't we call out the lies? And I will say that it was a Biden campaign strategy for a while and around the debate. Now, I think part of it was because Biden did so poorly at the debate that they all had to come out of the debate

saying like the only thing they could say is like, well, what about Donald Trump's lies? But then Biden sort of did that too. Like going into this next debate between Kamala Harris, like Donald Trump is gonna lie at this debate. He's gonna lie a ton at this debate. That is not pointing out his lies is not what's going to move people. Fact checking him is not what's going to lie at this debate. He's going to lie a ton at this debate. That is not, pointing out his lies is not what's going to move people.

Fact checking him is not what's going to move people. And Bill Clinton told us that actually sending the message that all he cares about is himself, which has been a running theme of a lot of the convention speakers, some of the really good ones, this whole week, like that's going to move people. Do you think it was, like,

it felt like a little bit of a, at Biden, just like a little, a little, a little rebuke. Yeah, I think, well, but it's not just Biden, it's like the entire sort of liberal ecosystem. The Democratic party for seven years now, eight years. We've had candidates, we've had elected officials mentioning in television interviews, how many Pinocchios Donald Trump was awarded

by the Washington Post, we gotta get away from that shit. The number of lies, whoa, he had 70 lies, like yeah, no, I know, he's the fucking liar, we all know that. So, as Levitt pointed out, the list of speakers was already very long tonight, but no one complained at the surprise speaker, Oprah Winfrey, here in her hometown of Chicago.

As always, she had everyone eating out of her hand. Here's a bit of what she said. Soon and very soon, we're gonna be teaching our daughters and sons about how this child of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, two idealistic, energetic immigrants, how this child realistic energetic immigrants how this child grew up to become the 47th president of the United States

and let us choose Joy together let's all choose Kamala Harris! I love Oprah. I just... You have to. Do you think it's just, again, our age or older? Right, I was wondering too, I'm like, younger than us are people like, oh yeah, Oprah, I've heard of her, she's cool.

I see her come out and I'm just like, this is a huge deal. Oprah's out here, everyone loves Oprah. She's giving a speech, she's such a great speaker, she's inspiring, I don't know, what do you guys think? Well, as old as we are, and I know I'm older. A lot of people. Most people are older than us. A lot of voters, yeah.

Most voters are older than us. She might be ironically cool on TikTok, we don't know, because it's not her, I'll go. But listen, I will never forget 2007. It's like Tim Wall saying, in Cuttin. Yeah, yeah. Clip it and cut it and share it. I'll never forget 2007, Oprah came to Des Moines, Iowa. We did a huge event.

It was absolutely bitterly cold, freezing day. I think it was snowing outside. We were like, I don't know, I hope people will come. This should be interesting. Absolutely packed the house. She did another one for us in Cedar Rapids. Brought the crowds to their feet. People were going nuts. We collected all this data like I think that was a huge moment for Obama.

But we had Madeleine Albright, so both sides had their stars. And there was something novel to that endorsement, I think it was the first time she'd ever really endorsed a candidate and come out and get involved in politics, it was special and unique, but I think she is huge cache, if you're 50 and over, huge cache. And I saw Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist, on Twitter. He was like, of all the speakers, he's like, Trump's clearly mad about the Obamas and everything.

He's like, but what really probably sticks in his craw is Oprah Winfrey, because Trump has known Oprah Winfrey for a long time, came of age in the Oprah era and is probably really pissed about that. I think Oprah is a leader and Oprah saying, I'm not political, but I'm getting political here. I want you all to do, and making a specific plea to undecided voters.

I think that carries weight with a lot of people. Also, all politics is tension wars, and you wanna get attention for this convention. You want people to know about it, pay attention. And having Oprah is like, that is playing your, playing an ace right there. And I also just thought the way she told the story about the idea that a child of two immigrants

would be president of the United States, in a time in which the other party is demonizing immigrants in the most offensive and xenophobic ways. It's just such a powerful thing to think about, about the stakes of this election, what it means when she wins. So we used to think about that with Obama, right? Like what it would mean for him to do it,

what it would mean for her to do it, for all of the barriers that she would break. It's like a reason for people who heard Oprah say it. Maybe it's not gonna persuade a ton of people who aren't paying attention to politics, but people who aren't sure they're gonna vote. Maybe they'll vote. People are gonna vote, maybe they'll volunteer, right?

Maybe if they're volunteering, maybe they'll donate now. It's a very powerful call to arms. We still have work to do on our side. Also, pivotal group of swing voters, older white women. You know who loves Oprah? Older white women. Yeah, I mean, that is exactly true, which when you look at the numbers, the big question

around the working class white voters is, can Kamala Harris exceed Biden's numbers with working class white voters? Part of that's abortion. And she's probably not going to do it with men. And she may lose some with men. So you've got to find more voters somewhere. One potential pocket is working class white women.

Oprah incredibly influential with them. They are anti all these abortion bans, right? They're upset about that, it's gonna return. So like that is the, when you, we know that people work on this campaign, we know how they think about the numbers. And you sort of go through the choice of Oprah, how walls it is speech.

You can see how they are getting to, they're trying to have the messages they get to their vote goal. Yeah, I can't think, you know, we just, we watched the whole Republican National Convention. It was this like You know victory lap

I can't think of the moments that you would take from that convention to share on social to persuade undecided people But I can think of five Hogan Hogan Dana White like those were the moment those were the celebrity moment. Yes, but in terms of like that but that was all kind of whatever. Yeah, like Celebrity and showmanship not an argument like you can see the moments that are coming from these speeches They're gonna go that are gonna be spread around on social media to reach people who aren't paying attention to this All right, love it. This one's for you. What did you think of the overall program tonight? It is

crazy like clearly it was not a plan to, you know, pull the strings to get Joe Biden to be late because those same people aren't trying to put Tim Walz after 11 o'clock Eastern. People are going too long and like they're making it about themselves. They're giving speeches that they want to give, not the most helpful speech possible.

And that was an incredible speech by Tim Walz. It should have happened an hour earlier. And it's like very frustrating that that didn't happen. And like, that's it. Yeah. I've been thinking about this because Stephanie Cutter is in charge of the convention. She put together one of the best democratic conventions ever

in 2020 in the middle of a pandemic. And Stephanie clearly gets the timing. And I think the people they've had problems with are the speakers Absolutely speakers who were like no you're not cutting my time or you're not cutting me from the program or you're not doing this And I again I also think this I think like 80 to 90 percent of this program Was put together when Biden was going to be the nominee and when Kamala Harris became the nominee They couldn't just turn around and be like, oh, hey, you're gone, you're gone, you're gone.

And there's inter-democratic, whatever. It shouldn't be that way, but that's the way it is. And I think they tried to do their best. Again, tomorrow night, even tonight, while we should have heard him in prime time for sure, tomorrow night, if Kamala Harris has to get on that stage By like 915 we need Nancy Pelosi backstage A giant hook for Kermit the frog pulling people off. There's no excuse tomorrow

No, no, it's a clubash are went through like the whole fucking geography of the United States of America cut it He came Jeffries named every day of the week cut it What what you gonna do throw me out of the side of her car? No, I'm not gonna get in that car after tonight Senator Klobuchar I just wanted to say I'm sorry They told me I would be out to dry if I did this. They told me before.

They warned me. Just me and Bullet Rye out here. Speaking of killers, I also want to mention Nancy Pelosi. Our pal Mindy Kaling, who did a fantastic job as emcee. Quite funny. Very funny. She introduced Pelosi as mother of dragons. Yeah, that's great.

As I loved. So, you know, Pelosi's speech wasn't amazing, but it didn't need to be. It didn't need to be because every single person in that hall knows what she did in this election and that she is the absolute pinnacle of her power. That said, there was a report in the Washington Post this morning

and you know, it was extensive in the Post, but it's been everywhere. This has been all over the Washington Post this morning and you know It was extensive in the post, but it's been everywhere This has been all over the place little bits and pieces. I can't wait to see where this is going And here's the quote a group of Democrats including within Biden's orbit and the Democratic National Committee Remain bitterly upset with Pelosi over her public pressure campaign to push Biden out Some have privately pledged to find ways to diminish Pelosi's influence in the party after the November election. Bold strategy. Good luck with that. Yeah, have somebody else start your fucking cars. What are you gonna do? Change your E-Trade password?

Yeah, man. Look, I don't want to keep talking about this because it's like, it's happy we're unified whatever, but the reason that we had to keep talking about it is because some people, and I don't know, maybe it's just one or two in the whole orbit, just keep talking to reporters about how fucking pissed they are in the middle of the Democratic convention about what Nancy Pelosi did, which was absolutely correct. First of all, Nancy Pelosi didn't make one phone call.

Except to us. Jesus Christ. It is wild. I just like, don't. There's just no, this is not helping anything. It's so silly. Threatening the former Speaker of the House on background to the Washington Post is some, what are you going to do?

Diminish her power? You're going to go prim- she's probably not running again. You're going to go primary her in San Francisco. What are you doing? Also? Folks who are saying this you're not gonna have a job in six months. I presumably you're gonna go do something else What are we talking about? All right, so Trump has been doing his best I think to bracket the DNC programming with message events of his own and boy has he been on message Today he held a rally in North Carolina that was supposed to be about national security Didn't see that in the headlines And boy has he been on message today. He held a rally in North Carolina that was supposed to be about national security

Didn't see that in the headlines What seemed to be on his mind was all the not nice things people said about him here at the convention the night before First and foremost very predictable Barack Obama. Let's listen I think her name will become red because I think that's the most accurate name You know, I've been looking for a name people are saying sir. don't do it. You know all my names. They've all worked. They've all been very successful. And I really didn't find one with her. It could have been Barack Hussein Obama, perhaps we should ask him.

Now he was very nasty last night. I try and be nice to people, you know, but it's a little tough when they get personal. Please again, remember, please sir, don't get personal, talk about policy. Let me ask you about that. We're gonna do a free poll. Here's the two questions sir don't get personal talk about policy. Let me ask you about that We're gonna do a free poll here the two questions should I get personal should I not get personal ready should I get personal? Should I not get personal I don't know my advisors are fired I

I don't know if my advisors are fired. I like that he's a great message. I like that. It's that on one side he has his advisors and then the other side is like the loudest racist contractors in the area who came to the rally and like these are the two groups of people that are being weighed against each other. Good. Good. I think you should listen to the contractors.

It is just so funny that like, oh, you you know I thought about being nice, which is you know sort of my style, but I don't know after last night I think that the guy who I accused of not being born in America and demanding to see his birth certificate for the better part of a decade, I don't know I think I'm going to sort of unload on him. I mean he is actually campaigning this week. Yeah. But he was doing like one event every two weeks before. Now he was out every day this week. Boy did it break through.

It was so funny, because it's been very hard to follow the news here. We're running around doing stuff. Can't ever really sit down, look at your phone or your computer. So I finally sat down to catch up, and I saw all the tweets, all the clips, and I finally read an article.

And then the seventh paragraph of the article, after the insult stuff the policy stuff It's like in an event that was supposed to be about national security It's like what it's the one thing that he's doing that is interesting is he's like he is doing this sort of Like Theo von and like reaching out to these like doing smart doing some smart stuff like there are clips going around that interview where he's like He's like like the rally Trump. it's not helping him, great. He should be doing all that. That's good, that's great.

But that interview, he like comes across, he does like as a kind of like, first of all, he asks another human being a question, something I've never seen him do in years of watching him. And he like, seems kind of like approachable and like a cool grandpa. It's not great. Yeah, it reminded me of my FBI background check interview

because when they kept saying, how do you do that one, he kept asking like extensive questions about various drugs that Theo Bon was into. He was very curious about cocaine. He really wanted to hear about cocaine. I haven't seen this yet. But Theo Bon, for those who don't know, he's a comedian. He's sort of in the Joe Rogan universe.

He's probably got a huge, young male audience. And this is where the Trump campaign has been really smart. They're putting him in these spaces to find these young men. And I can't remember if we were talking about this on mic or off mic anymore, but there was a huge gender split among Gen Z in particular. The electorate generally, but Gen Z, I think it's emerging even more in the Trump campaign

is going after those young men and very effectively. In fact, you're going to hear about that in just a bit, because Lubbett and I asked Gretchen Whitmer about that. Oh nice. What'd she say? I'll listen later. I'll check it out. You know what, go to bed, wake up, you don't need the pod. Just listen to it. So, Mark Caputo at the Bulwark published a piece today. Donald Trump, I hate my opponent. And it starts, Donald Trump has no plans to heed the advice of his aides and limit himself to policy contrast when he debates Kamala Harris he wants to make it personal quote. This is just the way I am. I hate my opponent

I hate my opponents Hillary Joe Kamala. It doesn't matter. I just hate them to another advisor He said I'm going to be mean Mm-hmm. Oh whoa watch out He just this is gonna be the debate. No, you don't think that's like a head fake do you? He said I'm going to be mean Watch out He just this is gonna be the debate. No, you don't think that's like a head fake do you? She comes out there with a get well soon card or something I mean as we're sitting here this convention it it is wild that the only 90 minutes of self-control that Donald Trump's ever had in His entire life was during that debate with Joe Biden. Yeah, we actually managed to like he was terrible in what he said,

but he did manage to control himself enough to allow Joe Biden to be exposed. But you know what, looking back on it, I don't think he exercised any discipline or control. He just wasn't triggered or attacked in any way by Joe Biden or the moderators. So it didn't make, when he gets, when you make him mad by saying anything to him

that is not like, you're awesome, or he'll do his thing. Well, what would some criticism by a smart and capable and unafraid black woman do to set Donald Trump off on a national television stage? That will be interesting. I mean, I think in the debate, Trump was just as shocked as the rest of us were

by sort of how things were going down. And he sort of says as much at rallies because he keeps joking about how the moderators would be like, Mr. President, you have 82 seconds left in your 90 second answer. That's sort of like his bit. But yeah, Kamala Harris is going to make him flip his shit. But it's been a month now.

He still does not, well, his campaign has a message and they are pouring yeah money behind it He is unwilling to it or unable to adopt the message and the comrade Kamala thing is idiotic Yeah, it's like what year is this that the the big threat is communism campaign not just him, too I think that is them throwing a bone to the guy here. They're probably like, you know what? Truth social is his safe space. We're gonna let him do what he wants to do there, and then we're gonna run the answer. Right, it's not explicitly racial or misogynistic,

so it's about communism. We'll let him have that one. Imagine the other things left on the cutting room floor that ended up in Comrade Kamala. We'll probably hear that during the debate. Meanwhile, in less funny news, it was widely reported today that RFK Jr. will give a speech on Friday morning

announcing that he's dropping out of the race and endorsing Donald Trump. Dan, what do you make of the impact on the race? I think it's pretty hard to say. So right now, if you look at the New York Times polling average, in a two-way race, Kamala Harris has a two-point lead. If you include RFK Jr. in the poll, she also has a two-point lead. And so what is happening here is that they are mostly splitting the vote, right? So, but it's not gonna be the same in every state. And so the downside here from a Kamala Harris perspective

is some of these voters could go to Trump, right? But from what we know of the voters, they are disproportionately black and Latino. And therefore are voters that we should have a shot at. Many of them have voted for Democrats before, might have voted for Joe Biden in 2020. And so we're just going to have to see how it plays out. I don't think Matt, I think him dropping out matters. I do not believe that his endorsement of Trump is going to move his voters to Trump.

I think I agree. Right. Right. Right. The question is, what what is the share of voters for RFK Junior that are going to him because they, like him, value him, care what he has to say versus are just looking for an alternative? Yeah, I mean you and I were debating this in the car on the way over because this we do the pod off air. It's unfortunate for our wives. We don't have personal things to talk about. How is your family? I understand you all have children. The most like simplest terms right like people like RFK jr. because he's anti-vax.

I think that's where a lot of his energy comes from so I can imagine that most of his votes would probably go to Trump then, because Trump is the most anti-vaxxer Jason. The counterpoint to that is, the lowest of the low information voters maybe don't like Kamala or Trump, and they see a Kennedy and they think, oh, that's an easy alternative for me.

I think that was sort of your perspective. So it might benefit him if he chose. I was trying to think of the vote, like I'm thinking about Joe Rogan, right? Who seems like he doesn't like Donald Trump He is he has said he's that he is not for Donald Trump right and he you know something we should I endorsed? RFK jr. And then sort of walked back. I just like him whatever so RFK jr. Dropping out is not making Joe Rogan go to Donald Trump but

What happens maybe he doesn't like come here, so maybe doesn't vote at all I don't know right like so there could, I'm trying to figure out the voter who was like, you know what, they've seen Donald Trump for the last nine years, they've decided, eh, maybe I'll do RFK Jr. RFK Jr. drops up. They're like, you know what, if you've already decided that you might leave Trump for RFK Jr., like, do you go back to Donald Trump or do you stay home? Where do we think Cheryl Hines is in all this? So there was a report that Cheryl Hines is very much against

her husband endorsing Donald Trump. I saw that and I just. The like we got to get Larry David on. I just like how much it's just sort of a strange thing to think that Cheryl Hines is in this moment of incredible power over over the the democracy You know, I don't like it it's just the thing I think is important to this thing about here is it is gonna be different in every state because RFK jr

Is just a placeholder for people who don't want by nerd just a fighter Trump or now Harris or Trump and That looks different in Michigan than does in Georgia, right? It looks different in Pennsylvania than it does in Georgia. And each place they're gonna sort of profile differently. And I mean, we talked to Liz Smith, who was working on this for the DNC on the podcast many months ago, and that was one of the points,

is that the RFK voter varies by battleground state. The other thing, just from a more alarming perspective, is if RFK Jr. is not on the ballot, and I assume that if he drops out, that the timing on Fridays based on ballot printing deadlines, that he will not be on the ballot. I don't know where this is going. But is that you will end up with the only non-Harris

or Trump alternatives would be Jill Stein, Cornel West. It may be a... Chase Oliver. Chase Oliver. Not Gary Oliver, as we learned after the last Oliver. Chase Oliver. Not Gary Oliver as we learned after the last podcast. Chase Oliver. Libertarian candidate. Libertarian, but a not a super conservative libertarian candidate. Like Gary Johnson hurt by some studies hurt Hillary more than Trump in 2016. So there's a number of candidates that could pull from Harris and or more likely to pull from Harris

than Trump. Yes, but it's like how many of the... If a RFK Jr. voter goes to... If it's a third party voter who is third party but would lean right, they might go to Trump. But if it's a third party voter, they'll have an alternative, which is Jill Stein. It doesn't... There's nobody...

RFK Jr. dropping out doesn't mean Kamala Harris voters will go to Jill Stein, but it might mean more of the RFK juniors go to Trump thing Go to Harris. They have somewhere else to go. Yes, they're pretty bold leaves Cleveland at noon and RFK You bring out the whiteboard in some strengths. I just want that's the actually don't don't front run the next episode of Polar Coaster Yeah, we'll continue this in the subscribers only pod I want to know is if the August 28th RFK jr Campaign sunset cruise that includes Alicia Silverstone and

Meta World Beast will happen either way. Wait, Alicia Silverstone is... I just had something so nice about her on Terminally Online today. Oh really? Because she accidentally ate a poison berry she found on the street. What's funny? And I thought that's unfortunate. Why is she eating fruit on the street? Well, I don't know. Why is she endorsing RFK Junior?

There's some judgment issues here. But nonetheless, I thought she deserved a bit of a cultural reanalysis based on how she was so mistreated in the 90s. But now I'm second guessing myself. Well, as she went home hours ago, someone has to call him, wake him up, and get him to cut that out.

Stop the presses, Elijah. OK, I'm going to end this here. OK, when we come back, more of today's DNC coverage brought to you by Policy Genius, starting with our conversation with Harris Campaign Communications Director, Michael Tyler. Joining us now is the Communications Director for the Kamala Harris Campaign, Michael Tyler. Michael, how's this convention treating you?

It's treating me well. I'm not getting quite as much sleep as I would have liked to. Because you're in parties all the time? I wish. I'm looking forward to Thursday night when I can finally go to one of the after parties. But it's been a good week. I think the energy, the enthusiasm has been on full display. We're feeling very good about the story that we're telling and the story that we're contrasting

against our opponents in Donald Trump and JD Vance. When you guys were planning this convention, obviously over the last month here, how were you thinking about the balance between telling the vice president's story and deepening people's understanding of Trump's agenda or the negative message? Yeah, I think for us, we understood that you kind of have to do both to be completely honest about it. I think we're clear-eyed about the fact that there's more work that we need to do and have to over index on fully introducing the vice president and governor walls to a wider swath of the American electorate.

People were obviously entering this election cycle with president Biden right as the presumptive democratic nominee. All of that changed over the course of the last month and so I think you've seen us approach this convention with that new dynamic in mind, understanding that you have more work to do to introduce the vice president, introduce the governor, but also remind folks that the stakes of the election are fundamentally the same, right?

The threat posed by Donald Trump is the exact same. His dangerous and extreme Project 2025 agenda is ever clear, ever present as it was before. And so for us, that's true of not only how we plan this convention, but if you looked at the work that we've done with the vice president and the governor crisscrossing all the battleground states, if you look at our paid media investments to date, right, it is both simultaneously fully introducing the new Democratic ticket while also

constantly reminding voters of the stakes and the choice in this election. Have you been surprised by how Trump has sort of struggled to find a message, some sort of anti-Kamala Harris or Tim Wall's message? Have you enjoyed his inability to do so? The thing about Donald Trump is his messages remain the same too, right? The message has always been personal grievance. The message has always been about Donald Trump and what's best for Donald Trump. Maybe there's more of a magnifying glass on that right now as we sort of hit, you know, prime time of the general election mode, but this fundamentally is a contrast between Vice President Harris and Governor Walsh who are like fighting for the American people and Donald Trump who, I guess when

he does decide to go to a swing state, which is a little more often than it has been as of late, but you know it's usually just Mar-a-Lago or Bedminster. It's all about himself. It's all about his own personal grievance. It's all about lobbying, personal insults. It's all about chaos. It's all about fear. It's all about division.

It's all about personal invective. It's nothing about solutions for the American people, right? And so for us, we're gonna allow him to do that when he wants to pop out, right? He can pop out, but the message that you see from Donald Trump is nothing that the American people actually want to buy. And so we're excited to continue to press the case and show that contrast, not only in high profile moments like this, but for the next 75 days. Last night, you guys pulled off something that was pretty tricky, which was to fill up an entire rally arena 90 miles away from Chicago and then have the convention go live on live television

to the vice president. How did you guys pull that off? Is there any good behind the scenes stuff there? Well, listen, I think what we've wanted to do right as we approach Chicago was not just think about this as solely one television production. You want to use this as an opportunity to fully engage, number one, the voters that are going to decide the pathway to 270 electoral votes, but also to engage our grassroots base, right? The people who are going to go do the door knocking, go do the phone banking,

talk to their folks on their social networks. And so we've approached this with those two imperatives in mind. It's why the vice president and the governor, before they got to Chicago went on a bus tour through Western Pennsylvania Pennsylvania making sure that we were talking about their values and their vision going into Chicago in a crucial part of a swing state in Pennsylvania. It's why we decided on day two of the convention not just to focus on the programming that we've got here in Chicago but to make sure that we actually took our candidates to a swing state knowing that it was only 90 miles up the road, right? We have the opportunity to go to Milwaukee,

an important city and one of the most crucial swing states, and directly engage with the electorate there. And what we're excited about is like, yeah, I believe the final tally was actually 18,000, not that Donald Trump would be counting the difference between what he had and Pfizer. What we had. I heard something about Donald Trump and crowd size

as a plus 24 hours here. Yeah, I heard 44 reference that a little bit last night. But listen, I think what we're excited about is not just the crowds, right, who show up to these events, but whether it's 18,000 advisor forum or 20,000 in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago, 10,000 down in Atlanta, or even places like Eau Claire, Wisconsin,

it's not just the attendance rate, right? It's the volunteer conversion rate. These are people who are coming to our events and then signing up to volunteer. You had 10,000 people in Atlanta, 1,500 of them signed up to volunteer for this campaign, right? It's the volunteer conversion rate. These are people who are coming to our events and then signing up to volunteer. You had 10,000 people in Atlanta, 1,500 of them signed up to volunteer for this campaign, right? And so those are people who are now going and spreading the gospel in their own neighborhoods, in their own personal networks, making sure that the people in their lives understand why this election is so important and understand why Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the ones who are going to have their back.

So we're incredibly excited to have moments like this where we can like not just speak to a wider swath of the electorate, but where we can truly engage the people who are going to do the critical work over the course of the past few, the last few weeks of this election. Yeah, I saw the 20 million people watched the coverage last night, which is not that he would care, but a lot more than watch the second Republican convention. I think they had 14. 14. Yeah, we had 20 million on TV alone. I think the other thing that we're proud of as it relates to this convention is the fact that not only do you have the 15,000 credentialed, you know, members of the traditional press corps, but we also have for the first

time about 200 credential content creators, right? These are people who are walking around the convention hall documenting the comings and goings of the convention and then sharing that content with their followers, right? Generating like millions more impressions. The vice president has actually like sat down and interviewed with a couple of the content creators who were here and we've had you know all the surrogates do so as well. So again for us our North Star is making sure that we're actually meeting voters where they are, right? Tapping into people's true media consumption habits.

So it's why you have credentialed content creators at the convention, and it's why if you look at our fall media reservations that we just unveiled to begin convention week, if you look at the overall budget, it's $370 million that's gonna grow, of course, but it was about 170 million traditional television, but we're laying down 200 million in digital advertising, right?

Because you know in an electorate that is increasingly millennial, increasingly Gen Z, you're not going to reach folks with running ads on Jeopardy every single night. You're going to get a lot of folks, but you're not going to get every single voter who you need to reach 270. So we're constantly thinking about how we break through, reach the voters that are going to truly decide that way I mean you get what you guys have done with the content or creator thing is very cool the way you guys are allocating your advertising a lot of the

Flood of online content about the vice president is something that's happening totally organically, right? the coconut means the the brat stuff the feminine on all of that and You're a communications director, I'm a quasi-retired communications director. People like us, we love control. And there is no control there, right? How do you sort of balance the memes with the message, how do you balance the memes and the message,

I guess is the way to say it. Yeah, I mean, honestly, you gotta embrace it and accept it, right? Because when the Zeitgeist is speaking, they're going to do a far better job of communicating than anything that we could come up with, craft ourselves, right? I think you just talked about it on our side of the ledger. I think the other example of this, of course, is Project 2025, where you saw organic conversations about this popping up on the internet as far back

as last fall. Now, this is a campaign. We saw that and started speaking to it ourselves, right? So when Donald Trump is out here, paraphrasing Mein Kampf, talking about immigrants poisoning the blood of this country, well, then you go look at like project 2025, the architect, but also what's in the plan. And you see things like mass deportation, you see things like the return of family separation, you see things like the end of birthright citizenship. the campaign can help connect the dots to what people are already

organically calling out themselves and put a stronger magnifying glass on it. But I think to a degree you have to simply like see what people are tapping into and accept it. Exactly. I actually was looking at a study on the Project 2025 thing this week and it is shocking the growth and awareness over like an eight month period from basically no one knowing what Project 2025 was to everyone. And that is really a credit to the,

it's like a validation of that when Democrats want people to know something, we can actually make it happen. Cause sometimes we have like that defeatist mentality of it. Like what's been going on with the coconut memes and all of that. That is like been going on with the coconut memes and all that. That is like just organic enthusiasm for the vice president. The project 2025 thing is something that a bunch of people

decided to make a thing. It was relentless message discipline across the ecosystem. And with a huge focus on social, right? Which is really what, because the press to their credit was writing about project 2025, it just wasn't breaking out the bubble. And then people were doing the TikTok, the TikTok explainers about it. It's been that's what's very cool.

And Donald Trump himself knows it now as well as he does run away from it. It's like, bro, is your people written for you by your folks? And you keep talking about exactly what's in it every single day. How's the vice president's speech prep going here? Look, I think she's ready to fully locked done. It's never done till it's done. That's right. Right. It'll certainly be done by about 10 never done till it's done. That's right. It'll certainly be done by about 10 PM central time tomorrow night.

10 PM. She'll be on at 10 PM? You're making news now. Breaking programming notes. That's great. As we head out of the last question for you, what happens after the convention? Where are you guys going? And how are you thinking about debate prep?

Because I was looking at the calendar, that debate's coming around the corner pretty fast. It is, it is, it is. So listen, I mean, obviously I think, as we said at the beginning of this conversation, I think in many ways the convention sort of serves as a capstone to this introductory phase of the campaign. I think for us right now,

obviously you come off of the convention, and the candidates themselves are gonna start putting in the sweat equity as they did when the vice president announced the governor as her running mate. They're going to get back on the stump, go to all the battleground states. And I think for us as a campaign, it's about making sure that we can continue to translate the energy and the enthusiasm that you see here in Chicago into action across the battlegrounds. How are you leveraging the candidate travel to further build your organizing infrastructure in the battleground states?

We've got 300 field offices opened up across all the battleground states, 1600 staff across the battlegrounds. We're going to continue to scale that up, make sure that we're taking advantage of the high profile moments that we create. And then of course, looking forward to some of these more high profile moments that you've spoke to, where you've got September 10th, assuming that Donald Trump again keeps his word. Shows up. Shows up.

We will have the first presidential debate. We'll have on, in October, we'll have the first vice presidential debate and then hopefully assuming again that Donald Trump keeps his word, we'll have another opportunity for the American people to see the choice front and center in prime time at a second presidential debate.

So we wanna use all of those to make sure that the split screen is front and center for the American people throughout the totality of the voting period. Early voting begins in late September. So we are going to have a moment here coming up very soon after the first debate where we're already in mobilization mode. It's going to be GLTV mode here for about six weeks. And so it's gonna be incumbent upon us to use every tool at our disposal, starting then to use this energy, use the enthusiasm, turn it into mobilization action at the ballot box.

So increasingly we're gonna start pivoting our operation to that really, that acute GLTV effort. Michael Tyler, thanks so much for joining us. I know you have a crazy busy week for you. Take a moment, enjoy it. Something special's happening here. I appreciate it. I'm gonna go get some coffee now, though.

Yeah, go for that. All right, man. Thanks. All right, when we come back from the break, you'll hear our interview with Big Gretch herself, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. But before we do that, a brand new episode of Assembly Required

with Stacey Abrams is out now. This week, Stacey recorded live from the DNC floor with the youngest member of Congress, Maxwell Frost, and civic engagement influencer,aley Lickstein to talk about what matters to the youngest generation of voters and how their generation is working to mobilize their peers this election. This episode is so good, but it's also just the start of what Assembly Required has in store. From deep fakes and NIL deals to the rights aggressive war on books, Stacey is taking on all the big issues to answer, how can we get good done?

New episodes drop Thursdays. Listen to Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams right now, wherever you get your podcasts. When we come back, Gretchen Whitmer. Joining us today, the governor of the great state of Michigan and author of a new memoir, True Gretch. Gretch and Whitmer, welcome back to Pod Save America. It's good to be here. This is obviously a very different convention than any of us imagined it would be. I know you're a huge fan of Joe Biden, as are we.

How do you feel about him passing the torch to Kamala Harris? And how are folks in Michigan reacting to the the new nominee? Well I'm grateful for so much of what Joe Biden has done for this country. I am also grateful that we are in a spot where we're now talking about a brand new chapter in America. I am proud to be here as a Harris co-chair of the campaign. I've got my daughters's intel with me. I think that this is historic, but most importantly, we've got an opportunity to hire a president

who actually has lived a normal life, who cares about people, who knows how to get shit done, and is a strong leader. And this is what we need now more than anything. So I'm really excited. Love it. I'll go. I knew it was my turn.

So when there was a sudden rush of VP speculation, you took yourself out of it pretty quickly. Why'd you do that? I've made a commitment to serve out my term as governor of Michigan. And I really believe I can be a great ally to a Harris whomever administration now we know it's Harris-Walls administration which I'm

thrilled about and I'm excited you know I love my job I've made this commitment over and over again I know people never believe anything politicians say but I mean it when I say it. That's good and Tim Maul seems like a real asshole. I mean my kid said he is like the male version of me, so yes, he is an asshole. What do you think is the most persuasive single argument Kamala Harris can make to the people of Michigan as someone who has won an incredibly close state on the national level, crushing margins both times? I think she's going to make a seat at the table for everyone.

She and Tim Walz are people who have lived normal middle class lives. uh... both times i think it's that she's gonna make a seat at the table for everyone you know she and tim walsh are are people who've lived normal middle-class lives they understand what americans are going through whether it's child care or health care uh... access to food for kids in schools i mean they've got receipts they've done the work and they're gonna make sure that every person is a seat at the table so even if you are and independent or republican who doesn't identify as a

Trump Republican, there's a seat for you at this table. You don't have to agree with everything in this platform, but if you agree that women should be able to make their own damn choices, come on over. If you agree that we need an economy that, you know, levels the financial barriers to people getting skills to get into good-paying jobs,, onshore and supply chains. There is a place for you at this table. And that's the message I think we've got to take directly to the voters in Michigan and all these swing states.

So you're somebody that's won decisively in a state that's now 50-50 in this presidential election. How do you explain that space between voters who proudly voted for you and are right now saying they're undecided? I think Washington D.C. is a lot further from people's lives than Lansing, Michigan is. And as governor, I can point exactly to how the things that we've done have made people's lives better. It's a lot harder to do from the federal government, but I think there's a compelling case to be made.

The Biden-Harris administration delivered on their work on advanced manufacturing. We are seeing a boom in manufacturing and a lot of it's happening in the state of Michigan. We got to connect that work to what it means for people's lives. And we're seeing groups like Republicans for Harris coming together. That's important. It's a legitimate invitation for people to come over and be a part of this. So, uh, past few elections, Democrats tend to win, women voters, Republicans tend to win, uh, male voters. Polling now is showing an even bigger gender gap than there's been in the past. And there are signs that gap is unusually large among Gen Z with younger men potentially drifting away from the Democratic party. I looked at your 2022 results. You basically broke even with men,

which is better than most Democratic candidates, man or woman. What do you think Kamala Harris and other Democrats can do to get a result like that? It's boring to say, but it is about the fundamentals. You know, as I talk to young voters, we had historic high youth voter turnout in Michigan where they had the best in the country in 2022. We were on campuses, we were engaging with young people. One of

the things that we're trying to do is encourage more young people to produce content to talk to one another. I'm a lot closer to voters ages than Donald Trump is, right? So maybe I'm a little more persuasive but a Gen Z person talking to another Gen Z person is powerful in a way that that my messaging on their behalf isn't. So that's why I think it's it's really important to stay focused on fundamental rights, LGBTQ rights, climate change, safe storage, like common-sense gun safety laws which we've gotten done in Michigan and affordable housing. These are the economic issues that young people are worried about that we have delivered on in Michigan and that a Harris Walls administration I know will

stay focused on too. If we wake up, look, you're doing everything you can to make sure we win Michigan, but it's close. If we wake up and we've lost Michigan, what do you think the reasons are? What are the places where you're worried? There's so much enthusiasm now, which is a great change of pace. But where do you think like we need to be concerned keeping our eye on the ball? There is a lot of enthusiasm. I mean I do want to bolster that point. We are seeing people calling into our campaign headquarters all

across the states and how do I volunteer? I mean it is a dramatic shift and that's really encouraging. But I know that our voter contact work has got to improve frankly and it is something that we've got to be on the doors contact work has got to improve, frankly, and it is something that we've got to be on the doors. We've got to be connecting with people. You know, I won Michigan by almost 11 points. We didn't write off any community. We didn't say, oh, that county looks red on this map, so let's not spend a lot of time

there. No, we went in. When you lose by seven points instead of 11 points over and over again in red counties, you drive up your margin in blue counties. That's how you win by 11 points and flip your legislature for the first time in 40 years. That's the kind of work that we are going to do going into this election. And I think not doing that would be would be a reason that we might fall short. And that's why I'm not going to let that happen.

Michigan Senator Gary Peters said this week that he thinks Kamala Harris has differences with Joe Biden on Gaza and that she should speak publicly about those differences. What do you think? You know, I think what Kamala Harris has already done has gone a long way toward acknowledging the pain that so many people are feeling. The only universal truth in this in this moment is that our Jewish community as well as our Arab and Palestinian and Muslim communities, they are not all one in the same and it's always important to highlight that. Everyone's hurting right now. Everyone wants the violence to stop. Want the hostages returned. I think

staying in that space, acknowledging the pain that people are feeling and recommitting to trying to bring a cessation of the violence and return of the hostages and rebuilding the region is going gonna be really important and she's doing that. And so is Tim Walz. And so big kudos to both of them. I want them to spend a lot more time in Michigan with all of our communities. And I think that they will and I know that they're

resonating in a much more positive way. I wanna talk about your book, True Gretch. What really struck me is how candid and conversational it is. You swear, you tell stories about getting drunk, about getting tattoos. What made you decide to write an interesting but potentially risky book as opposed to just a safe politician book?

Well, I figured Kristi Noh wrote one, why can't I? And how many dogs have you? No animals were harmed in the making of your book. And you've not murdered a dog. None were executed. No goats even were executed in my book. No goats? Okay, well, that's pretty good. The question I get the most is,

how do I stay so positive when everything's so damn heavy? 28 recall attempts. You weren't counting, but I sure as heck was. Pandemic, a plot to kidnap and kill me, climate events. I mean, it's been crazy six years. And still I love my job. I ran for reelection.

People were like, why do you want to keep doing this? And that's what it is. These are 10 things I've learned in my life that I have used over these last six years to get through. And if I give you a laugh at my expense, or maybe there's a story of inspiration, or just some light reading, I've accomplished my goal in this heavy time.

Yeah, so there's sort of a contradiction here, right? You talk about why you've outperformed other Democrats. You talk about getting practical, you talk about policy, but it's obviously more than that. There's a lot of Democrats out there who say like, oh, they've been trying to do the exact same thing, make the exact same case. They don't do as well with people. They don't persuade people. Put policy aside. What is it that you think Democrats fail to do to communicate with people, to be authentic with people that you seem to be able to do? You know I really think so one of the things I talk about in the book is the power of listening. It is really important and it might sound

like you know oh it's what a lofty wonderful thing like shocker Whitmer that's a great lesson like who doesn't know this most people don't listen very well though in my first election I got into all 83 counties I asked people if I'm lucky enough to get elected what can I do that'll make your life better and people said fix the damn roads I didn't come up with this I didn't poll test it I didn't say oh I want to swear no it was just this is how people talked about it but it was in a conversation with a woman in the Detroit Children's Hospital and I said you know I asked her the same question she's. But it was in a conversation with a woman in the Detroit Children's Hospital and I said, you know, I asked her the same question. She's there,

her son's in a brace, like, what can I do that'll make your life better? She said, fix the damn roads. And I was shocked because I thought we talked about health care or child care or education. She wanted to talk about the roads. And I said, tell me more. And she explained, you know, she was driving from Flint to Detroit, hit a pothole, it busted the rim on her wheel, sidelined her for a whole day, hundreds of bucks out of her pocket. She didn't see her kid in the hospital, paid for childcare for kids that she couldn't spend time with either.

And this was like rent. It was childcare. It was time with her kids. So it's like the fundamentals. And if I hadn't asked that follow up question, if I hadn't asked in the first place, I might not know that this is something that's important to everyone. So you don't just wait for your turn to talk? Is that not how you do this?

That is not how you do it. Did you catch any of that? That's why you're not running for office. It's novel, I know. How's the speech coming for tomorrow night? You're speaking at the convention. Good. It's got every night, it gets a little bit shorter though.

These people talk too long. What the hell? Everyone is talking way too long. Way too long. They're talking too slow. Everybody is late waiting for all the applause to die down. People gotta keep moving, this is on television. Agreed man, so time me tomorrow

and let me know how I rate. I want words per minute. I want everybody to pick it up, pick up. Give us a preview, what do you wanna communicate tomorrow night? Well, tomorrow night's obviously about setting the stage for Kamala Harris, making sure that people know she and Tim Walz have lived normal middle class lives. They're just like us and that other guy is not. So you'll hear me talk a little bit about that. She gets the assignment.

Yeah. Let's go. We've been saying that. The assignment is making sure that people elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. That's the assignment. Boom. Great. What should we eat when we're in Ann Arbor? What should you eat when you're in Ann Arbor? What should you eat when you're in Ann Arbor? I mean, Zingermans is always, you know, my fave. Zingermans. All right. I love it. I love it.

Governor. And for the record, Tim Walls is not an asshole. That was a joke. No, we knew that. We knew that. That's going to be. You'll see. Remains to be seen.

He is one of my all-time favorite people. And I love that. You can try to walk it back. You can do clean up all you want. We all heard what you said. We just had Gavin Hussman, he said the same thing. He's like, everyone polishes and says, oh, this guy's nice. Tim Walz, really nice guy. Governor Gretchen Whitmer, thank you so much for coming back on a Pod Save America. I've been talking too long for five days in

a row. Thank you. Thank you. That's our show for tonight, but we've got more from the DNC for our Friends of the Pod subscribers. Lovett and Dan did some behind the scenes, and there's a new segment with Reed and Elijah, which I'm just going to let you, you have to subscribe to hear what it's called. I'll just tell you, I'll just tell you, I'll just tell you, you might not know this, but, but Reed, uh, who, uh, helps produce this show is reading every novel by Charles Dickens. Wow. Before he dies, which is how he describes it. And, uh, have you gotten to Bleak House yet? He's finished Bleak House.

Yes. He's really has two young children and works his ass off on this show. Yeah. I don't think it's making a lot of progress Honestly, I think he may not live long enough to finish all these fucking books if you're gonna be your regret if you're a subscriber These segments should be showing up at times It was the worst of times Episode nice your pods have America feed if you aren't a subscriber Head to cricket comm slash friends or sign up through the Apple podcast app Oh, you guys see that Mike Lindell argued with a child here. Yeah, clip it clip it and send it to your uncle

Well, we back tomorrow with our reaction to the final night Thank God of the DNC and Kamala Harris's big speech. All right boys get out the sleeping bags Let's go home guys. If you want to get ad-free episodes, exclusive content, and more, consider joining our Friends of the Pod subscription community at Cricut.com slash Friends. And if you're already doom-scrolling, don't forget to follow us at Podsave America on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube for access to full episodes, bonus content, and more. Plus, if you're as opinionated as we are, consider dropping us a review to help boost this episode, or spice up the group chat by sharing it with friends, family, or

randos you want in on this conversation. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our producer is David Toledo. Our associate producers are Saul Rubin and Farah Safari. Reed Cherlin is our executive editor and Adrian Hill is our executive producer. The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle Seguin and Charlotte Landis. Writing support by Hallie Kiefer. Madeline Herringer is our head of news and programming. Matt DeGroote is our head of production. Andy Taft is our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team Elijah Cohn, Hayley Jones, Phoebe Bradford, Joseph Dutra, Ben Hefkoat, Mia Kelman, Molly Lobel, Kirill Pellavive and David Tolst.