The Daily Beast Podcast - Oct. 11 Member Bonus: Val Demings Says She Has a Plan to Stop Trump’s SCOTUS Pick

Episode Date: October 15, 2020

This members-only episode was originally published on October 11, 2020 and moved to this feed for full member access. Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) helped get Trump impeached, but now there's a new battle: his SCOTUS pick. She worked within the government’s Internal Affairs department and became one of the impeachment managers in Trump’s case after 27 years as an Orlando police officer. And impeached he was. So on this members-only bonus episode of The New Abnormal, co-host Molly Jong-Fast asks for her thoughts on Trump's SCOTUS appointment and how exactly Democrats and citizens alike can stop it. (Mitch McConnell is “pushing it down the throats of the American people,” she says.) Her plan? Lots of pressure. (“This is not a moment for partisan politics. And we expect our leaders, Mitch McConnell, to lead the way there. His number one responsibility is the health, safety and wellbeing of the American people. And so I am hoping that he will feel the heat, if you will, from the American people.”) The former cop also shared what the future of police departments should be, and for her, abolishment is not the way to go (“When you talk to people who live in some of the highest crime areas, they say they don't want to see less police. They want to see more police, you know, because they know what it means. We should not talk about the police and the community as if there are two separate entities. If the police are the community and the community is the police one cannot exist without the other.”) Plus! Demings subtly takes a dig at her state’s Gov. Ron DeSantis. Then she explains the best way to get Disney World, and the economy at large, back up-and-running safely. (Spoiler alert: we’ve got to get the virus under control first.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, and welcome to another The New Abnormal Member Exclusive episodes, and we thank you so much for being here. Today we have Val Demings, who is a former Orlando Police Chief and now representative for Florida's 10th Congressional District. Val, talk to me about Florida. You're in Florida right now, right? I am. So you guys pass the Heroes Act. Can you talk to me about passing the Heroes Act and what's happening with the Senate? Well, we passed the original Heroes Act three months ago. absolutely nothing happened in the Senate. And as you well know, COVID-19 is unfortunately not getting better in terms of people contracting it throughout the country. And so the Senate refused to move.

Our leadership has been back and forth with the Senate leaders and the White House trying to come up with a compromise. Didn't happen on the original Heroes Act. And so we went back, took a look at our bill, made some significant compromises, if you will, and passed it in the House of representatives. And you know, Molly, some things have changed since we pass the Second Heroes Act. And I do believe that there may be, I'm hoping that there is a little bit more interest, if you will, in the Senate and the White House coming up with something to help the American people because they desperately need it. Mitch McConnell seems to have no interest in taking up any legislation from the House ever. Is there, except of course, he's very excited about the Supreme Court's seed.

Is there anything Democrats can do to force his hand? Well, I am hoping that the pressure, the majority of the pressure on the American people, as you know, millions of people are out of work. We have about 7.2 million who have contracted the virus. About 210,000 have died. And President and the First Lady in my heart and thoughts and prayers go out to them. But have contracted the virus as well as several staffers, it seems like that number continues to grow. This is not a moment for partisan politics, and we expect our leaders, Mitch McConnell,

to lead the way there. His number one responsibility is the health, safety, and well-being of the American people. And so I am hoping that he will feel the heat, if you will, from the American people. Let's pass something that can help them during this difficult time. Our listeners are pretty galvanized, and we have a fair amount of them. What should they do? Pick up the phone and call send emails, call your senator starting in each state. You know, many times we see Republican and Democrats or only reach out to their particular people that are in their party.

Let's don't do that. We should not give people a pass. If you're in a state where you're represented by a Republican senator, get on the phone and call him or her and say, look, the American people are suffering and you need to do something about it. Pass this legislation. This is a everybody accountable.

moment. And so those phone calls, those emails, making your voices heard, I think are so very critical during this critical time for a country. Doesn't it straight you is odd that Mitch doesn't want to help people? After all, wouldn't it help Trump's reelection? You know, try to explain the unexplainable or the inexplainable with Mitch McConnell. It's odd for me because I've dedicated my life trying to help people. It seems like he's only interested, as you've already said, and one thing, and that's the Supreme Court nominee, ramming that through down the throats of the American people when millions of people are out of work, millions of people have contracted the virus, hundreds of thousands of die. I just don't get it, but we all, I think, have an obligation to

make sure that he does and hold him accountable when he does not. You have such an interesting perspective because you were a police chief, and you are a legislator. and you are a black woman. I am very curious to know how you feel about what you think the future could be of police departments and how if we had a really functioning federal government, which we don't have right now, how one might be able to reimagine the relationship. I'm not really sure what that word reimagined means, but what I can say is this, that every community, black and brown, high crime or not,

deserve to have effective, efficient police service that they can trust and that every community deserves to be safe. And matter of fact, when you talk to people who live in some of the highest crime areas, they say they don't want to see less police. They want to see more police. You know, because they know what it means. If there is a reduction in police service or personnel, they believe, and I think it's important to listen to them, that they're going to be adversely impacted. So as we deal with police misconduct, which we should, and deal with, you know, we passed the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, which was all about establishing some national guidelines that will help govern the way police departments operate as it pertains to hiring, training, diversity, policies,

which is a good thing. But as we also talk, Molly, about holding America to its promise, if we look at policing, I think we're starting at the end of the story and not really starting at the beginning of the story and really critically looking at, well, what caused the police to be called in the first place? So as we hold America to its promise, I believe it's important to also look at those quality of life issues that cause decay in communities in the first place. If you look at many of the high crime areas, you'll also see lack of employment. You'll see low wages. You'll see too many people dropping out of high school and not finished in high school. If we know that the Overwhelming majority of people in our prisons are black and brown,

and there are also people who did not finish high school. Could that be a clue? And so as we deal with police misconduct and believe me, we can and we will do that. We also need to look at those other areas that cause decay in communities. It's going to take both. And as we have this conversation about the police, we should not talk about the police and the community as if there are two separate entities. The police are the community and the community is the police.

One cannot exist without the other. We have to continuously every day try to build relationships that are based on trust and transparency. I've talked to community leaders who were saying, that police department, and I would say, oh, no, you don't. That's your police department. They belong to you. Now, how are we going to work together to make sure that you hire the brightest and the best? You hold those who are not accountable, and you move forward and provide the much needed protection

and service that every neighborhood deserves to have. So, Val, with that, we saw a partisanship in the police department like we've never seen with, you know, Pat Lynch speaking at the RNC. And now we see these proud boys bragging that they have a relationship with the police and a lot of people are scared that on election day, if there's right wing groups intimidating the vote, that the police may be on their side. Do you have any thoughts on that? This is a really critical issue. We have an obligation to talk about it in a responsible way. And I believe that way is to acknowledge that the overwhelming. majority of law enforcement officers, men and women who have wear the badge, put on that

uniform every day are good, decent, hardworking people who want to do the job correctly, do the job correctly, and quite frankly, want those who don't held accountable because it creates an opportunity to make them all look bad. And we know that is not true. We did not see the overwhelming majority of police officers at the RNC. And so individual people who are who want to do individual things have their right to a certain extent to do that. But let's don't make that reflective of everybody because we know that it's not. The proud boys in any other group on any side who breaks the law should be held accountable, which includes threatening, intimidating people at any place at any time, include in the polling places. Let me say this.

In Orange County, here in Orlando, we have law enforcement at our polling places because we are hoping that they're so congested and so many people are trying to vote that we want them to be able to get in and out of the polling places, their vehicles, be able to move effectively and efficiently. However, any laws that are broken at any polling place, number one, you're not allowed on the premises unless you are there to vote, number one. And so we have to have a proactive approach to keeping those who are not there assigned for an official purpose off the premises in the first place. And I do believe that law enforcement will do their job. And look, it's been telegraphed, right?

We've heard what the president says. We've heard what the proud boys and others have said. And so I think police departments will take the necessary steps to have a proactive approach to keeping our voters safe. I mean, you're in Florida. And Ron DeSantis has been one of the absolutely worst governors when it comes to coronavirus, including he has this new thing where if you break the restrictions, you're not going to get punished.

I mean, he just seems like if ever there were a good, governor on this side of coronavirus, it would be DeSantis. I'm curious to know you represent part of that state. How do you deal with that? Well, how much time do we have? How much time do we have? And look, and let me say this, we have been in public service for a long time. And we've always been pretty clear on what our job and our mission was and still is. We try to never allow ourselves to get distracted by that. The governor's number one responsibility is the health, safety, and well-being of the people that he represents. But you never know, you know, we liked people all the time, but we never really know what we have until we have a time of crisis. As Dr. King talked about, the true measure

of a man. And we know that the response to the coronavirus here in Florida has been quite poor. And we see some numbers that we are not proud of. 700,000 people here in our state have contracted the virus. When leadership fails at the top, it is incumbent upon all of us to step up and do what we know is right on to protect the people that we represent. I thank God for mayors, for example, around this state who have taken the initiative to protect the people in their areas. For example, the Orange County mayor, my husband has a mask mandate that if you're in the county, it's mandatory that you wear a mask. We know that is contrary what the governor has said, but it is the right thing to do. As we've seen, unfortunately, over the last few days, some people learn the easy way and some people learn the hard way.

That's what my mother used to say. And so if the scientists and medical doctors and researchers say that something as simple as wearing a mask and help to protect you, but the people around you, why wouldn't you do that? And I just don't get it. Look, I also know we have small businesses that are suffering. We have some of the largest corporations in our state that are suffering. Yeah, like Disney World, right? The health of Floridians has to be number one. As I said, when the governor doesn't fill that space, we have to fill it for him.

Can you talk about Disney World? What's happening with Disney World? Well, Disney World is the largest employer. And remember here in Central Florida, we have, in my district, for example, I have all of the theme parks. I have the majority of the hotels and hospitality industry. I have the convention center and a significant number of people, Disney Employees, is about 70,000 people alone. Large percentage of people work within that industry,

and it is a domino effect. The airports are not anywhere near at capacity. The 55 million people who visited us last year and visited our theme parks and our restaurants and our stores and stayed in our hotels and had conventions here are not here. And so the domino effect of everybody's being impacted, as you heard, Disney laid off 28,000 people last week and 16,000 of them was right here in Central Florida.

The economy is devastated by that. Our families who work in that industry are devastated. But what we do know is that we cannot get our economy back on track, get people anywhere close to being made whole until we get the virus under control. And that has to be our number one priority. We have not had a unified national strategic response that was scientifically based to get the virus under control. We have governors who unfortunately have followed the president who really had no plan to do it.

I'm hoping and praying that that will change. As I said earlier, we wish the president and first lady a speedy recovery. But we have got to let the scientists lead this effort to get the virus under control so we can get our economy back on track. We should not stand by and watch people who have worked hard, played by the rules, lose everything, their businesses and their homes and their livelihoods. We've got to do better. Thank you so much, Val. You're amazing. I really appreciate it. Well, I'm glad we finally got this done. Thank you to both of you. On that note, we'll wrap up this episode of the new abnormal from The Daily Beast.

In future episodes, we'll be talking with smart folks from The Daily Beast and beyond from media, culture, politics, and science who will help us understand what's happening to our country and the world. We hope you'll subscribe to us on your favorite podcast app and share the show on social media. We're just getting started and don't want you to miss an episode. episode. If you'd like to follow us on Twitter, I'm Molly JongFest, and he's the Rick Wilson. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll see you again on the next episode. Want more great listens? Check out our comedy podcast, The Last Laugh, and our star-studed The Daily Beast podcast at the Daily Beast.com slash podcasts.

If you enjoyed this episode, consider becoming a Daily Beast subscriber. Subscribing is the best way to feed the beast and support all of your podcasts as we cover what might become the darkest timeline. to the DailyBeast.com slash membership slash podcast and sign up today.