The Bulwark Podcast - A.B. Stoddard: Only in America

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

Kamala delivered a real work of art—a perfect American story filled with love of country, democracy, family, and the pursuit of big dreams. She also spoke to the center of the electorate, and conveyed a strength to take on the bullies and protect the nation, all with a feminine touch. Meanwhile, the sitting black VP has positioned herself as the challenger against an incumbent Trump, infuriating him in the process. A.B. Stoddard joins Tim Miller for the weekend pod. show notes: Elaina Plott Calabro interview about Kamala that Tim referenced Tim's playlist

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Landlord telling you to just put on another sweater when your apartment is below 21 degrees? Are they suggesting you can just put a bucket under a leak in your ceiling? That's not good enough. Your Toronto apartment should be safe and well-maintained. If it isn't and your landlord isn't responding to maintenance requests, That's not good enough. Your Toronto apartment should be safe and well-maintained. If it isn't, and your landlord isn't responding to maintenance requests, RentSafeTO can help. Learn more at toronto.ca slash RentSafeTO. On behalf of the people, on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race, gender, or the language your grandmother speaks, on behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey. 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 hello and welcome to the bulwark podcast i'm your host Tim Miller. I'm here with A.B. Stoddard, only in America. How about that? I am feeling so gushy, Tim. It was amazing. People who work hard, chase their dreams, and look after one another stuck with me immediately and stayed with me all night. And when I woke up, it just went right through me. And I know she had brilliant speechwriters, but this entire thing was a real work of art. And I give her so much credit for knowing exactly what themes to strike and to emphasize. And her delivery was incredible. Yeah. I was already getting a little verklempt,

just sort of thinking about it. First woman to accept the nomination in in this country and and kind of what you know her story the immigrant story it's the American story all wrapped in together and then for her to close that have the last thing she says before she accepts the nomination the greatest country on earth I know that it's stereotypical of Democrats like oh they don't think about america like that you know there's all the obama apology tour attacks and all this and america is just another country like switzerland or whatever it's not anything particularly special that she accepts the nomination on behalf of of the people that worked hard to get there in the greatest country

on earth and then she closes the speech talking about america is the greatest story ever told right it is this acceptance of i am going to live up to the obligations of this country and focus on all the hope and opportunity of this country that was a choice it was a choice to do that to embrace it and it really i thought it was really moving last night and it also you know kind of made me want to do the hulk hogan and tear my shirt off a little bit i was just like yes thank you thank you right we got plenty of flaws there's plenty of time to talk about all that but to appreciate that knowing that she's had to deal with the flaws and overcoming the flaws and the sins of the country, man, I thought that was a very big decision.

I loved when she said, we are heirs to the greatest democracy in history. And we owe our forebears. We owe the people who came before us and the people who will come after us, that we owe them the hard work and the commitment to it. And I wanted her to do three things, Tim. I wanted her to introduce herself in a way we've never seen before, we didn't see in 2019 or 2020 or 2021. And she gave us her personal story. It was so interesting. Bill said today, grateful and not aggrieved, which I thought was a great point to make about her. And when you

were just emphasizing that, you know, she said, my mother was a five foot woman, you know, with a funny accent or something. And she saw, I saw the way people sometimes treated her and she handled it well. She let us know just a bit about that immigrant story, about that experience, about being that kid who's half, you know, Jamaican and half Indian, but American and her coming up. And, and I loved the way she, it wasn't perfect. She said her parents split up. It didn't work out. It's clear she didn't spend a lot of time with her dad. She talked about extended family, the people who weren't related to her, but really nurtured her. I loved that. And she talked about what inspired her. And it was, I'm sorry, it's so hokey, but it is the perfect American story. And it was really searing. Yeah, I just want to get to two things on this point, because it was just so strong to me. And the contrast with Trump about that grateful versus aggrieved. You could imagine a speech that somebody in her shoes could have given about all that she had overcome.

Exactly. Right? About all that everybody had overcome. You know, this is about the historic racism of the country. It would have been totally appropriate to give a speech like that. Right? the historic racism of the country it would have been totally appropriate to give a speech like that right you know about how people came over in different kinds of boats you know about about overcoming slavery about over about having to have a single mother and not having the support you know about the racism that her mother experienced about the you know fact that her

dad wasn't around right if it was trump that is the speech like all trump does is complain all he's been given his gifts and all he does is complain. And she was given these challenges, but talked about how grateful she was and how much work went into getting to where we are and how that's a bounty that is available to everybody here. That's just such a strong contrast and a moving one. The speech was different than the ones that she's given in these packed arenas. And there was something about her delivery too, that I, I said this last night on the show, I just found her so interesting and captivating in a way I've not seen before. And look, I've slept on it. And the truth is, I'm a big Hillary Clinton critic. Hillary's a robot. You know, she's too afraid to be her real self.

And she was always calculated and calibrated and not coming through. And we saw Harris last night we haven't seen before. And she's been great for the last four weeks, absolutely electric. But what she put together last night and the way it was delivered, I did think, you know, there are a few times when she tried to raise her voice for strength or whatever that didn't completely work, but you know, all told, I gave it a 96%. I mean, I just thought that there were, she just carried us through this really interesting ride that had these

different parts. She was buoyant. She was, she was grateful. She was confident and genuine. And she was so engaged with what she was saying. She was not just reading something that people sat around conference tables putting together. So, it was just really so far beyond my expectations. And I was sitting there thinking, why is this so interesting why is it so compelling well one more of those things about her story and about how she hasn't really told it that much part of the reason why it's compelling is because we're learning about her and that was this opportunity for this convention which a lot of politicians don't have at the convention because

you know them already like and so it's hard to tell new things people are learning about her i'd encourage listeners if you missed the episode because I think it was during the Trouble, so some people might have been taking a break from this podcast, with Elena Plott that I did maybe a month ago. And she had followed Harris around and traveled with her to Africa. And Elena was talking about how the VP was reticent about sharing her story. She wasn't really that comfortable doing it for whatever reason. Maybe it was the sort of overhang of sexism, misogyny, like you don't want to say something that people are going to use against you. You know, Elena didn't really have a great, you know, she gave some theories, but that was, you know, something that she hasn't been

comfortable doing. And so you wondered, again, you could imagine a speech where she didn't really try to do it, right? Where she focused on tearing down Trump. She focused on, you know, policy. She focused on contrast. And instead, she gave this, like, window into herself and how her story ties into her candidacy in a way that was moving and was compelling just because we're all learning it together a little bit. Yeah, I think that what we saw in the in the campaign headquarters that Monday, July 22 in Delaware, was someone who had not been a very good number two was not comfortable being a number two. And once she unleashed herself to be herself, because this was her moment, she had, I mean, she was wrapping up that nomination, she was going to get on this rocket ship and she was going to lead,

you know, this effort and she was going to be her authentic self. So that was the first time I saw it, but really sharing more of her personal, you know, her unlikely journey. I mean, Tim, I think she was just unburdened by what has been,

but I have to say this. Also living in the context of everything that came before. She was both. I want to say this without living in the context of everything that came before uh she was both I want to say this without crying she was so incredibly feminine and there's something about seeing that she's always in the pantsuit she wants to be tough and I think that came through very effectively the confidence and the strength yeah and I love her belittling Trump you know she articulated the threat of Trump, but I loved the line about how in so many ways he's an unserious person and his narcissism. But I thought that how she threaded that needle,

just being confident and ready to take on bullies and ready to be a commander in chief. But she was feminine. I've never quite seen anything like it. Okay, so you said there were three things you wanted her to do, introduce herself. What were the other two? I wanted her to define herself and share her personal story. I wanted her to be moderate and speak to the center of the electorate. And I wanted her to attack Trump effectively. And

she did all three perfectly. Let's go to the second one, because I agree. There are two parts of the being moderate. One is policy, and one is just tone. So, you know, I kind of want to start with the tone. Bill cataloged this for us this morning. Terms used in Harris's speech, America, American, Americans, 34. Democrats or Democratic Party, zero. Freedom, 12. Family or families, eight. Opportunity, opportunity six race or gender one so bravo bravo right just thematically and we already talked about how america is the greatest country in the world but it was a speech that in a lot of ways you know had some parts that could have

been at a mcc McCain convention about the country, about the values of the country. Bill didn't include this in the account, but she also talked about faith a few times as well. And they've done this all week, but she was hitting, taking back these terms that Republicans have tried to own and doing so in a way that felt very natural. And it was this pairing of, okay, I am proud proud to be an american so there's a little bit of the 1988 republican reagan bush chest thumping american but it's also paired with part of the reason why i'm proud to be american is because of these progressive values right about because of our diversity because of the immigrant story right and she i thought she paired those together quite well right and that that's that's threading that needle where yeah where she's somehow speaking to our diversity as our strength

but not remaining focused on that and and i mean if i could sum up the convention in two words i would say patriotism and project 2025 right the task was to really explain to everyone watching and tuning in who might not be an active you know engaged partisan or whatever the threat of trump and the plans for his second term but also to show this party as a different party the democrats have changed and maybe i'm getting too hopeful here but i think that seeing biden be able to eclipse bern eclipse Bernie Sanders at the last hour and become the nominee after that ridiculous primary in 2019 of socialists thinking they were going to win. Yeah. And their free lunch and their intersectionality and all that crap. I'm not talking about free lunch, you know, what Tim Walz has done for free lunch.

I'm talking about free lunch. It's a rhetorical phrase. It's my go-to. So, so watching the transition from 2019 to 2020, and then watching the Biden presidency and the Democrats and watching one thing she said last night, but she said, she actually used the word denigrate. She says Trump's denigrates America. I would really like her to elaborate on that in the weeks to come.'d really like that to become part of the of the campaign debate because he craps on the country all the time and so do the people around him and so anyway to get there to this speech this convention where the democrats are embracing patriotism and freedom and families

and taking that back from every republican convention you and i have ever watched or the ones you've been a part of is it's really stunning yeah and doing it in a way that's authentic it didn't feel like fake right right it didn't feel like oh we're stealing these terms just because it's a political calculation right it's like it was merging it into the democratic story right like we care about, but all kinds of families, right? Not like them who only care about the certain kind of family. We care about faith, but all kinds of faiths, not just evangelical Christian faith, right? Like I think they did a nice job with all that.

On the policy side of being moderate to that second goal, there's an immigration section, which I think, you know, is tactically what they kind of have to do to deal with the biggest vulnerability. We're talking about how she would sign the Langford bill. But the one that stood out to me, I was on with one of those dispatch boys. And I was like, I think you're going to be surprised at her foreign policy and how friendly it is to people that come from maybe the Nikki Haley tradition. It's not going to be bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,

but it is going to be pretty strong with our allies, caring about America's role in the world, being forthright. She uses the word lethal, talking about how she's not afraid to use lethal force. And I want to play, I think, my favorite policy segment from the speech. I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un, who are rooting for Trump, who are rooting for Trump. Because, you know, they know, they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors. They know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself. And as president, I will never waver in defense

of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs. She won't cozy up to dictators and the dictators are rooting for trump and it wasn't in the speech it wasn't in the transcripts i got the full original transcript she stops on that line and i emphasize that they're rooting for him they're rooting for him because he's one of them that rooting for dictators line wasn't in the transcript no no it was like it was this one sentence as part of a it wasn't like a stop for applause line it was just okay she stops and then she repeats it again and like

you can feel it in the moment like this absolutely it was one of my favorite lines by hooted yeah because it's so important to explain that dynamic to people that you know she said he loves autocrats because he wants to be one to explain to the voters, but he, he believes that he doesn't have to protect our interests in Ukraine. He says that they're their interests and they're having a border dispute or, you know, the way that the right writes off our nato alliance and the importance of collective security she just went at that so hard and i the fact that she said that he loves dictators and then actually i mean people never say that and when she said they're rooting for

him it was so it was awesome and just generally than the foreign policy i mean you had to feel i guess hey maybe we're getting pandered to so it's nice to be pandered to for once so i'm gonna enjoy it while it lasts but i don't know did you feel like it was just right in what you would would be looking for from her we've been waiting right we've been waiting we wanted some attention on ukraine and she dove right in i thought it was terrific the strength strength of our NATO alliance, leading the world's most lethal fighting force, all that stuff about the military, our veterans, NATO, Iran.

What I marveled at was her language on Israel and Gaza because she managed to assuage so many people. It was biggest applause in the entire speech speech and she didn't even really say much tim it was so effective and it was like it's like a 40 60 issue with democrats and she managed to please like 91 which is pretty good and please the center because she was very strongly pro-israel she stuck with the biden policy and then she just said that the suffering in gaza needs to end and peep the palestinian people so they can realize with dignity and security self-determination i mean she didn't she didn't say anything she asked for a hostage deal in the ceasefire so bravo i mean i just was so pleased

and tickled that we got through that and it was the one part of the speech i'm holding on to the side of my chair i'm like oh did we have to talk about this maybe we just talked about it but she did she it was good that she talked caputo said that there were some groans or some booze somewhere it was completely drowned out with applause yeah for all those of us at home no i thought i thought that was also encouraging just the way that it was deft in the way that that she handled it the economic side of it also like worth mentioning she talked a lot about more traditional democratic populist you kind of bill clinton-y economics but she also talked about entrepreneurs and opportunity i like there was a little bit of that you know they gave us uh what bill say in the newsletter like

just a hint of jack kemp she gave us just a hint of Jack Kemp, which was nice. This message comes from BetterHelp. Can you think of a time when you didn't feel like you could be yourself, like you were hiding behind a mask? BetterHelp online therapy is convenient, flexible, and can help you learn to be your authentic self so you can stop hiding. Because masks should be for Halloween fun, not for your emotions. Take off the mask with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com. The Trump contrast. So much that you can go with, with Trump, right? Like there's so many ways to do it.

Is he a demagogue? Is he a clown? You know, is it the racism? Is it the misogyny? You know, you just have all of these different opportunities. And I think that what they went with as the main frame, I think is smart. Let's just listen to one short clip. He would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States,

not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security, but to serve the only client he has ever had himself. So there you go. She covered a bunch of stuff, but the main focus is Kamala Harris is for the people, Donald Trump's for Donald Trump. I thought that this was a really great runner throughout the whole convention. A lot of the speakers used that language that Donald Trump only cares about himself, not you. Donald Trump is looking out for himself. Harris is looking out for your problems. I thought it was very intentional and very effective. And I really liked that she did it. But I also like how she also discussed, you know, his explicit intent to pardon extremists, his explicit intent to jail journalists and his political opponents.

She dug right in. And I thought that that was important. And I really was glad she did it. And I absolutely loved the part where she said, she's going to be a president for all people and all Americans. She didn't put country over party. And she said that she was going to protect the rule of law free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power that was just awesome she's on january 6th for maybe a little longer than i would have thought that section was a little bit of kind of more what we are getting out of biden um but i thought it was worthwhile and again for like the peaceful transfer of power part and the attacking of the police which is what i like to focus on in this case. Right.

Like, again, you're taking back patriotism. You're taking back freedom. Let's take back back in the blue while we're at it. Let's just let's just do the whole deal. And I was glad that she mentioned that. But this big frame, I sum it up as if you are going to just distill down, like, what was the pitch? What is the contrast pitch between her and Trump? The theme of the speech was her saying, I love America as it is and want to do the work to make it better for you.

He hates America as it is, and we would be happy to tear it apart to make life better for him i think that that's compelling and it's digestible and it is not as highfalutin as some of the stuff that the democrats have been had been trying to do before she took over right i mean look we expected her to pander to the left and she hasn't we expected her to do it at least a little right and so she has really narrowed this lane i think to i'm going to continue you're going to get what you got with biden i'm going to be a tough commander in chief i'm going to lead the free world i'll never abandon our allies saying two times let me be clear let let me be clear about Israel's right to defend itself and the ability to defend itself, meaning she will continue to support its defense,

not just champion it, but provide weapons. So that was the thing that she had to get through, right? She had to be commander in chief. The rest of it is just, I'm going to be sane. I'm going to be normal. I love this country. We have to get beyond this period. We have to get to the next chapter. We have to leave this whole period behind. And the fact that we're talking about this last night, Caputo was saying Trump and Republicans are so furious with the fact that she's somehow positioned herself in this narrow, undefined lane, limitedly defined lane as the challenger and Trump's the incumbent. And it's infuriating him and they don't know how to do it. And what I said was, you know what? We have to give her some credit.

Like this is not by accident. She is the sitting vice president. And somehow she has become a Rorschach test and she is the projection of what we want to move on to. Yeah. And last night was great, because she was much more specific. I really, you know, she had to be that way on Ukraine and Israel and some other things. And she did it. But generally, she's like, we got to move on. There's a little bit of a build, baby build element to the economic stuff, which I liked.

Part of this has been the skill of the team and the talent to position themselves as the challenger with we're not going back. Part of it, though, is just, you know, for all of the baggage that comes with misogyny and racism, the fact that she's a black woman helps on this being a challenger, right? It's just like, she just doesn't read as as biden's second term right right it's just biden was reading as a person from a different generation you know because of his age because he's a white guy because he's been in washington for 50 years i do think that that is working to her advantage in this in this, right? As of being able to position herself as different from the era, right? Like it's like a Trump-Biden era

that people are sick of. That she was kind of there during, but like, not really. And so now she wants to take us to a different era. And the identity helps with that, I think. Somehow she has so deftly managed to be grateful to biden at the beginning of every speech and all these particular moments and rushing up to greet him

on the stage you know the first night everything but you still get the vibe that she would like to flee as well and she's just done it so elegantly really really honestly honestly that's a lot harder than it looks huge props to her on that really impressive and creating this contrast that i think has her potentially to what jvl wrote in the newsletter yesterday she's trying to get to 53 right she might not get to 53 but she's trying to like they put together a convention and a speech that was we're going to keep our base happy we're going to keep people excited we're going to keep our base happy. We're going to keep people excited. We're going to keep the coconut time rolling, you know, but also we're going to try to get to as many of these Haley Kemp people as possible and try to run up the score. So I

thought it was impressive. This message comes from BetterHelp. Can you think of a time when you didn't feel like you could be yourself, like you were hiding behind a mask. BetterHelp online therapy is convenient, flexible, and can help you learn to be your authentic self so you can stop hiding. Because masks should be for Halloween fun, not for your emotions. Take off the mask with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com today to get 10% off your first month.

That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P, dot com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelpHELP.com. Our man Adam Kinzinger had a star turn. Good on them for giving him such a prime spot, by the way. I thought he was wonderful. Let's listen to one clip. The Republican Party is no longer conservative. It has switched its allegiance from the principles that gave it purpose to a man whose only purpose is himself. Donald Trump is a weak man pretending to be strong. He is a small man pretending to be big. He's a faithless man pretending to be righteous. He's a perpetrator who can't stop playing the victim.

He puts on quite a show, but there is no real strength there. As a conservative and a veteran, I believe true strength lies in defending the vulnerable. It's in protecting your family. It's in standing up for our Constitution and our democracy. That, that is the soul of being a conservative. It used to be the soul of being a conservative. It used to be the soul of being a Republican, but Donald Trump has suffocated the soul of the Republican Party. You know, Kinzinger did a continuation of what Jeff Duncan had done the day before, right?

Kind of redefined, saying to, you can be conservative. They're not conservative anymore. You can be Republican. They're not Republican anymore. You know, all of these traits that Donald Trump says he has, he is the opposite of them, actually, you know, and so you can come here without embracing whatever it is in your head, you don't like about it. I thought it was so critical that we didn't have one, we had several Republicans coming out for Harris. Adam was amazing. I too appreciated that they gave him a slot on the last night, very close to the actual nominee's speech. I mean,

that was really unheard of. It was so beautifully written. It was so powerful. I really want to give him props for just really stealing a show. I mean, in terms of, you know, oh, here's another Republican who's going to get up. Yeah, you know, oh, here's another Republican who's going to get up. Yeah, we're so happy that he's like against Trump and is going to support her. Just the way he defined the Democrats patriotism, the way he defined his current, the current Republican Party, the smallness of Trump, it was just brilliant. And this is so important tactically, because I think Biden wins like 8% of Republicans in 2020. It's really important, as you just mentioned, for her to get a buffer of Republicans that just feel shame after January 6

about voting for him a third time. They're fine with the first two, right? But you've got to keep some of them back from voting a third time who are, you know, feeling shameful about it and are conflicted. And Adam and Jeff Duncan and Olivia Troy were very effective at that. And I'm sorry if I'm leaving another person out. There's the third three that came to mind. And Kinzinger's description of the party not being conservatives is just, it's just so powerful because it's not, it's over. And what you think you have in the republican party isn't there you know you're just you're just in for the cult so i'm up in the kiv today tim but this weekend i'm going to go back to being panicked yeah and i read you know jvl's right he's

really dissected all this she needs that she needs that buffer she needs to get up to surmount the liability of the electoral college structure. And I think that it's so important that she, that they've accepted that they need Republicans and they need center right voters. Well, Fox didn't show Kinzinger, so fuck them and fuck Rupert Murdoch and fuck Paul Ryan and all these people are so shameful. And then to do the Trump call and after, I'll probably spend most of Monday's podcast with Bill Kristol about this topic because I'm writing about it this weekend, so we don't have to belabor it. But I'm glad they gave Kinzinger prime slot on Thursday night. It's enraging and shameful and outrageous that there's not a single Trump cabinet official there.

There's not a single sitting Republican elected official there. There's not a single opponent of Donald Trump's there from any of the primaries. All those fuckers. What was the Jeff Duncan line? It's never the wrong time to do the right thing. August 26th might be the right time to do the right thing. If you're Chris Christie or Mark Esper or Mitt Romney or Liz or Bush, or we can go down the list. So I don't know if you have any thoughts on that. I will have much more on this on Monday. Yeah, no, and I'm glad you're writing about that. I agree with that. I was lamenting.

I was sort of waiting, you know, because each night you'd know some of the speakers, but then there would be this layered on surprises at the last minute. I was like, come on, John Kelly, come on, just come on. I just don't understand it. Maybe people just are still afraid of death threats. They want them to die down. I don't know what it is, but it's... Jeff Duncan and Adam have small kids. So I don't know. They're doing all right. They've been very tough, very brave. If you have one of them in your life, give them a call this weekend and let them know. I have a mean article coming on Monday. And

then if they want to get out of that, if they want to pre-butt it, you know, they can send a leak out this weekend about their endorsement of Kamala. The Trump of it all. So last night he calls in. Why don't we actually play this little clip too? She didn't talk about fracking. She didn't talk about crime. She didn't talk about 70% of our people are living in poverty. She didn't talk about housing, really.

The trade deficit. She didn't talk about child trafficking that she's allowed to happen because she was the border czar and she presided over the weakest border in the history of our country. There he is. That was Trump calling into Fox. Brett Baier and Martha McCallum are like looking at him like he's an insane person. He's accidentally beeping the phone like that. If you that beeping sound you heard that was not me or ab that's trump that's old man is like beeping his own phone by accident

didn't seem like somebody that that you know has a very that is a very stable stable genius response to to the convention i don't know what you think well i love that he was like live bleeding it right he was true thing throughout because where's hunter good. Where's Hunter? That's a good opener. The guy always seems like he's on a really bad drug. So he was melting down with, you know, I think he had more posts than the minute she spoke for. And then when Martha says that she's doing well, she has having success with certain voting groups in the polling. She sees, he says, no, she's doing well, she is having success with certain voting groups. In the polling, she says, no, she's not. I'm having success.

And as you know, they have to leave to go to Greg Gutfeld's show and hang up on the old man who then calls into Newsmax, where he's talking with them about how they should go to Caracas together. It was super weird. Oh, I have to go find that. I missed that. I had to Caracas together. It was super weird. Oh, I have to go find that. I miss that. I had to go on TV.

MS after. Yeah. Actually, if you had seen the look on, I think it's, is it Greg Kelly and Mercedes Schlapp's faces? They were the anchors. Gorka was one of the panelists.

It's a real keeper. Congrats to Mercy Schlapp. Mercy Schlapp once in a green room asked me what I was going to do to fix my personal brand after Donald Trump won. It seems like my brand turned turned out okay. She's a co-host on Newsmax. So I guess I won the long game on that one. She was trying to keep a poker face. It was getting really weird. And Trump thought it was so great that he posted it at like quarter of two in the morning, his Newsmax call-in appearance. So yeah, he's not doing well. We predicted that this would be tough for him.

Later today, we will learn how many people watched last night. And he and his minions will say that the Democrats intentionally did a head fake on Beyonce to make sure that there were enough eyes on her speech, which turned out to not be real. And that'll be a whole thing. And that'll be how he self-soothes about how many more millions of people watched her last night than watched it he's got to do a

lot of soothing all right one other news item that came in since we've been recording here interest rate cuts are coming in september is somebody that purchased a house in 2023 that's good news for me personally uh though i might need one more cut but i think it's good news for me, personally, though I might need one more cut. But I think it's good news for Kamala Harris, right? I mean, just generally speaking, an easing of economic anxiety going into the fall, it has got to help on the margins, right? Oh, Tim, we've been waiting for it. If it wasn't going to come, I was going to have some hair falling out. Yeah, we were hoping for the good debate and the rate cuts. So, yeah, we need this. and the jobs have been a little shaky so i was hoping that would you know help

spur this and i think that it's just in time for opinions probably cementing and you know more about this than i do what in late september yeah And then it's kind of like hard to reverse. I mean, early voting will begin and, you know, things will gel. So, yeah, I'm really pleased to hear that. And now I'm going to worry about the polls that we see next week and the debate.

Okay, yeah, plenty to worry about. I gave an admonition on the end of yesterday's podcast about getting pilled by politicians. One of the good parts about not allowing yourself to become a total fangirl and to be saint a politician is that when they're wonderful, you can just call them wonderful with credibility. You don't have to always say they're wonderful. And she was wonderful last night.

It was a historic night. It was emotional. She hit all the marks. And we might as well enjoy it this weekend. Everybody go get yourself a little coconut daiquiri. And the fight will continue. We got to still do something. You got to do something.

We got to do something. But it was a good day to be a citizen of the greatest nation in the world. Huh, A.B.? Agreed. I loved it. I loved the convention. I went all in. I'm glad it's over, but it was impeccable.

All right. Well, you're at the beach, it looks like, based on that single bed in the background. I don't know who suffers through that bed at night, but we'll be back on Monday. AB's going to enjoy the beach. You know, if anything happens over the weekend, you can catch me on YouTube,

and we'll have Bill Kristol, and me and him will have a i don't know maybe 30 minute hate on the republicans who have not done the right thing yet because this is the moment all right if you're worried oh i can't do it because she might not be strong enough on israel or strong enough on foreign policy or strong enough on ukraine she did it she's done her job republicans or whatever you are now now it's time for you to do yours. Thank you to A.B. Stoddard. We'll see everybody else on Monday.

Have a wonderful weekend. It's coconut time. Peace. Far, we've been traveling far Without a home, not without a star Free, only one would be free With hard on clothes And hang on to a dream On the boats and on the planes They're coming to America

Never looking back again They're coming to America They're coming to America They're coming to America. They come to America. They come to America today. Today. Today. Today. The Borg Podcast is produced by Katie Cooper with audio engineering and editing by Jason Brown.