The Daily - The Battle Over the Democratic Party's Future

Episode Date: June 23, 2020

This episode contains strong language. Today’s Senate primary in Kentucky has been transformed by the outcry over police brutality. What can the election tell us about the future of Democratic politics? Guest: Jonathan Martin, who covers national politics for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily Background reading: Amy McGrath was considered a safe bet in the Democratic primary in Kentucky. But the recent movement for racial justice has elevated the candidacy of her African-American rival, Charles Booker, in the race to defeat Mitch McConnell.

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today's Senate primary in Kentucky has been transformed by the outcry over police brutality. Jonathan Mark on what the election can tell us about the future of Democratic politics. It's Tuesday, June 23rd. Jonathan, tell me about today's Senate race in Kentucky.

Well, this is the Democratic primary to take on Senator Mitch McConnell, who, of course, is the majority leader of the Senate. And for a long time, it seemed like his Democratic opponent was going to be Amy McGrath. I'm Amy McGrath, and I love our country. I spent 20 years as a U.S. Marine, flew 89 combat missions bombing al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Who came to some fame nationally in her 2018 House race on the basis of her resume. I was the first woman Marine to fly in an F-18 in combat, and I got to land on aircraft carriers. She was a Marine pilot and entered the House race talking a lot about her military experience.

This is my new mission, to take on a Congress full of career politicians who treat the people of Kentucky like they're disposable. And almost immediately gained this national profile. Some are telling me a Democrat can't win that battle in Kentucky. That we can't take back our country for my kids and yours. We'll see about that. But she was not a terribly good candidate, it turns out. This is a disappointment to Democrats.

It comes from the state of Kentucky. Amy McGrath, the former Marine combat pilot, defeated by the four-term incumbent Andy Barr. She was running in a pretty difficult seat for a Democrat. But this is a district that Trump won by 15 points. Her opponent, Andy Barr, looks like will get that fourth term. And she lost. It was otherwise a great year for Democrats.

But Chuck Schumer, who runs the Senate Democratic Caucus and effectively runs recruitment of Senate Democratic candidates, figured that she had one very important asset that could help him in 2020. She raised a lot of money and built a large list of national donors in 2018. Hmm. And so as this Senate, not House race, gets underway this year, I'm guessing Chuck Schumer decides to look to Amy McGrath once again.

Exactly. Because the idea was not necessarily to beat Mitch McConnell, but to at least keep the race competitive, keep McConnell pinned down in Kentucky, keep him focused on raising money for his own reelection, and perhaps siphon some national GOP money that would otherwise go to different states and have it go to Kentucky. So that was Schumer's thinking. Look, Amy McGrath is our candidate. She's a strong candidate. That was Schumer's thinking.

Look, Amy McGrath is our candidate. She's a strong candidate. And he looked at McGrath and saw her money potential, saw the sort of breadth of her national donor list and said. She's giving McConnell a run for his money. The Republican super PAC put $10 million into Kentucky. She's doing very well. This is who I want to be our nominee against McConnell. And I'm going to make sure that she does not have any kind of a consequential primary to speak of. So he wants to clear a path for her to become the nominee.

Right. Schumer wants to clear the field. He wants McGrath to be their candidate. He doesn't want to deal with drama in the primary. He just wants to have her raising money, putting up enormous numbers to spook McConnell and divert McConnell's attention back to his own home state and his own reelection. So it does seem like for some time that McGrath is not going to have a terribly competitive primary. And so while McGrath seems to be full steam ahead towards the general election with not much of a primary to speak of, she is banking money at an extraordinary rate. She has raised over $40 million, which is more money than a lot of Senate candidates raise in an entire campaign, let alone a primary. Yeah, that's a lot of money. So as far as everybody is concerned, especially back in Washington, Amy McGrath is on a glide path

to the nomination. Exactly right. And then something happens. We turn now to a deadly police-involved shooting in Louisville. The victim was an EMT. Her family claims she was executed by police as officers served a search warrant in the middle of the night. On March 13th, shortly after midnight, Louisville police officers used a battering ram to enter the apartment of Breonna Taylor,

who was a 26-year-old African-American emergency room tech, and shot her eight times while she was in bed in her own apartment. So they just went into her apartment looking for a suspect whom we now understand was already in police custody. This is not unique to Louisville. We need answers. We need answers because this should have never happened. And this killing of Ms. Taylor by Louisville police sparked an outcry in the state. We have a right to live while black! That is then amplified, sadly, by the killing

in late May of George Floyd in Minneapolis. George Floyd! Say his name! George Floyd! Say her name! George Floyd! Say her name! Say her name! George Floyd! Say her name! Breonna Taylor! Say her name! Breonna Taylor! And how does that begin to impact this Senate race? The activism in the aftermath of the killing of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd is extremely intense in Kentucky and especially in Louisville.

The demonstrations are nightly. There are clashes with police. And there is a candidate who is running from Louisville. He's an African-American. And his candidacy is now starting to get more attention. I stand before you as your brother, as your cousin, as your neighbor, as your fellow good troublemaker. My name is Charles Booker. 35-year-old state representative named Charles Booker. I'm the state representative for the 43rd District,

which we are standing in, and if you are not from the 43rd District, I represent you anyway. So he represents what he likes to say is the poorest zip code in all of Kentucky. No one pays attention to my neighborhood. In the west end of Louisville with roughly 75,000 people, we have just a couple of grocery stores, a handful of dollar stores because they prey on us. He is from the west end of Louisville, black neighborhood. And if you need to use public transportation to get to the hospital, it can take you a couple of hours. Jobs have left. And he is someone who is running as a progressive and had been running as a progressive. My platform is about ending

structural inequity and ending generational poverty. Talked to him about issues like the Green New Deal, like single-payer health care, but hadn't gotten a lot of attention in large part because he hadn't raised much money. And McGrath had raised so much cash. Right. But after the killing of Taylor and then Floyd. We are crying out for Breonna Taylor, but we're crying out for ourselves. Once these demonstrations get going, there is now suddenly more attention to Booker because he is the state lawmaker who's in these protests.

When Breonna died, when she was killed, a part of us was killed as well. He is getting tear gassed in the streets of Louisville. And he is seeing this up front. He's experiencing this himself day in, day out in his hometown. He is effectively a Black Lives Matter candidate. If you look like me, if you look like him, if you look like him, if you look like her, you may be seen as a deadly weapon before being seen as a human being. It ain't right.

And it's hurting all of us. And so what happens to Booker's candidacy as these protests intensify in Louisville and all over the country? Well, the two largest papers in the state, the Courier-Journal in Louisville and Lexington Herald-Leader, taking note of this fraught moment of racial politics, endorsed Booker and state that he's the best candidate for these times. So that helps to give him traction. And then, in addition to getting that key local support, he's getting the attention from national progressive leaders. Bernie Sanders offers his endorsement. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gets behind his candidacy. And that's putting him on the sort of national progressive

radar screen, if you will. So, Jonathan, as Booker is, from everything you're describing, catching fire, what is the party's anointed candidate, Amy McGrath, doing in response? party's anointed candidate, Amy McGrath, doing in response? Well, she is talking about these demonstrations and about the killing of George Floyd a little bit more, in recognition that, you know, she can't take the primary for granted. But, you know, Amy McGrath is not a natural politician. This was part of her struggle in 2018. And it does not go perfectly when she tries

to engage these issues. In fact, in a debate, she's asked the question about... Have you been on the ground in Louisville with the protesters the last three days or in Lexington or elsewhere, Ms. McGrath? Have you been to any of the protests? And she answers pretty awkwardly. I have not. And why? Well, I've been with my family and I've had some family things going on this past weekend, but I've been following the news and making sure that, you know, I think we're in the middle of a pandemic.

So suddenly Amy McGrath's politics of moderation and her distance from these protests are seeming quite out of sync with the moment. Right. And more to the point, Booker is very much tapping into the moment. This is suddenly a competitive primary. Amy McGrath has had to spend an enormous amount of money on ads in the last couple of weeks to sustain her advantage, money that I think she and national Democrats thought that they would use against McConnell. And Booker has made this more of a competitive race going into the primary Tuesday. And so what is Booker's surge here? What does that mean for Democratic Party leaders back in Washington who bet so heavily on Amy McGrath. So Booker illustrates that, you know,

the intensity of the activism that we're seeing on the streets of America in the last few weeks is now at the doorfront of the Democratic Party. And Democrats are eager to harness this energy and activism, especially when it comes to organizing against President Trump and the Republicans this fall.

But when it comes to their own races, their own primaries, their own party, it's more complicated. So this does also represent a challenge to Democratic leaders. We'll be right back. Jonathan, how is it a challenge for Democratic Party leaders to have a candidate like Booker doing really well? Because on the surface, it seems like a hotly contested Democratic primary that raises lots of attention, raises lots of money, that that's a good thing for the party.

Well, it creates a challenge because Chuck Schumer has gotten used to being able to dictate primaries in the Senate races basically every two years. But it's not just about Schumer. This is about the Democratic Party's leadership being able to keep its grip on who the nominees are going to be, where the money is going to go. And this is a real challenge to that power, that grip on the party. And why does that grip matter if it's maybe out of sync with what Democratic primary voters want? Well, because leaders like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi believe that to keep or gain

majorities, they have to appeal to a broad cross-section of voters. And that means nominating some candidates who are more moderate, depending upon the state or the district that they are running in. And Booker does not fit that mold. Exactly. Leaders like Schumer are skeptical that a candidate of Booker's liberal politics could win the race in a place like Kentucky, where Trump won by 30 points four years ago. in a place like Kentucky, where Trump won by 30 points four years ago.

But I think to get closer to the bone here, if Schumer is not able to control the outcomes of these Democratic primaries, and he's got people in his caucus, potentially, who are not loyal to him, who won despite his intervention, then that's going to create vote counting headaches for him. And, you know, looking at the map right now, his majority is probably going to be, if there is one, a seat or two. It's not going to be that extensive. So every vote counts.

So he's thinking about, who am I going to have in my caucus? Who's going to be reliable? Who's going to be less so? And that's where this matters. This reminds me a little bit of what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dealt with, with the election of the squad, among whom is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, progressive Democrats who tugged the entire body at times to the left in ways that House leadership wasn't perhaps ready for. But it's even more delicate in the case of Schumer because of math, because the Senate is going to be

so closely divided next year. And if Democrats have a majority, it'll be a narrow one. Think about it. Pelosi in the House, she won 40 seats in 2018. They had a pretty robust majority. So you could lose a handful of progressives like the squad and basically cater to your more moderate Democrats because those are the ones that had numbers. This is just a more sort of delicate situation because the Senate is on a knife's edge. Jonathan, we're talking about this race in Kentucky as if it is very high stakes for Chuck Schumer. But how much does this race in particular really matter? So this is less about eventually beating McConnell, which is going to be a tall order in Kentucky, than it is about what's happening in the Democratic Party. And it's not just in Kentucky. Also on Tuesday, there is a competitive primary featuring Elliot Engel,

who's the long-serving chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who's facing a primary from an African-American, Jamal Bowman. In Virginia, a fairly conservative district, there is also an African-American running in that primary. So what I'm really interested in watching these primaries unfold is, can progressives gather strength, organize, and sort of overcome the establishment candidates in some of these races? But also, is 2020 going to be for black candidates what 2018 was for a lot of women, which is sort of capturing the energy of the moment. And I think that's going to be one of the most fascinating things to watch on Tuesday is can Black candidates like Jamal Bowman in New York, like Booker in Kentucky, can they build these multiracial coalitions capitalizing on this extraordinary moment of race in America? Jonathan, it would seem counterproductive, not to mention perhaps hypocritical, for the Democratic leadership to stand in the way of such a change within their party that you described. in 2018? And wouldn't it want to welcome and celebrate African-American progressive candidates

in this coming election cycle? Well, here's the catch. A lot of the women in 2018 that Democrats embraced were more moderate. You know, the squad got the attention, but a lot of the women who ran in one in 2018 who were not as well known are much more centrist in their political orientation. I think the difference here is twofold. First of all, I think there's concern that some of their politics are too progressive for the states or districts. And I think in the case of Engel, of Congressman Engel, it's just a matter of protecting incumbents. That's a longstanding rule in both parties, that they support incumbents. So, you know, Nancy Pelosi, Andrew Cuomo feel obliged to support a longtime ally, somebody who's up for reelection. Right. They don't want to lose loyal votes,

longtime allies. That all makes sense for the leadership in theory, but isn't the greater risk for Democratic leaders on a really practical level that they are missing this moment? They are not getting behind candidates, and they risk losing touch with this very powerful constituency that seems to be ascendant within the party. Right. The left would say, this is what the moment is, and this is what the country now needs and demands. Given the virus, given issues of racial injustice, given the economic collapse, the moment cries out for real substantive sweeping policy changes in America, and that if you don't abide that, if you don't recognize that, then you're out of touch as a Democratic leader. And I think this conversation, this tension between the left and the center and the Democratic Party, I think is really going to come to the fore. And in that version of this, Jonathan, what becomes of some of these Democratic leaders

who we started this conversation focusing on, like a Senator Schumer? Well, they have to adapt to the moment. And if they don't, then they're going to pay a political price in their own party. And they risk losing control of their own party's nominating process because they would further feed this energy on the left and risk having their own colleagues lose primaries. And yes, even perhaps in Schumer's case, they would risk their own seats.

You know, I've spent a lot of time talking to candidates and they often try to hedge or they often try to trim their answers to reflect the states that they're running in. Well, that was not the case when I talked to Booker. Amy McGrath, your opponent, your primary opponent, do you think that she would lose to McConnell on the fall? Of course.

He was very straightforward about the fact that he believes the moderate approach trying to not be seen as true ideological was a loser in Kentucky. It's the same playbook that loses every time. And it's this political BS that says the only way you can beat him is just raise a whole lot of money, flood the airwaves, don't talk about real issues, don't talk about poverty, just play the political game and you'll peel off some conservative voter.

That never works. But he said we've tried that before. He said we've seen that playbook used time and time again, and people are not going to fall for that bullshit again. These aren't issues that I'm choosing out of political expediency. This is out of survival. We need a renewed data because we need a cleaner environment. We need sustainable jobs.

We need more investment in our infrastructure. They want somebody who's going to be true to themselves, who is not going to try to sort of hammer or hedge. And he didn't mince any words. But Charles, what are you going to say the day after the primary when Schumer calls you on the phone and says, if you want the money, you want our help, you know, you got it, you got to ease off on some of that stuff. Well, we're beating the status quo in the primary. And so I think that conversation will go a little bit different. Jonathan, thank you very much. Thank you.

Polls in Kentucky opened at 6 a.m. today. Thousands of Democrats cast mail-in ballots, some of them weeks ago, before the race had tightened. Long lines are expected for those who plan to vote in person. A single polling place has been designated for Louisville, Booker's hometown, and a city of 600,000. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to nerde. On Monday, President Trump signed a sweeping executive order

that bars many foreign workers from receiving visas through the end of the year, preventing those workers from filling more than half a million jobs. The White House said that the restriction on several different kinds of work visas would protect U.S. jobs in the midst of an economic crisis. But the move is opposed by many businesses, from tech firms to manufacturers, who say that it will hamper their ability to fill key jobs that Americans can't or won't do. And... Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. It seems that almost every day we reach a new and grim record.

Yesterday, more than 183,000 new cases of COVID were reported to WHO. Easily the most in a single day so far. In a press conference on Monday, the World Health Organization warned that global infections from the coronavirus keep reaching record highs, fueled by the rise of cases in India, Mexico, South Africa, and Brazil, which has become the second country after the U.S. to report more than 50,000 deaths from the virus. Some countries that have successfully suppressed transmission are now seeing an upswing in cases as they reopen their societies and economies. The United States now accounts for 20% of total new infections worldwide. Two states have reported more than 100,000 cases each over the past 14 days.

more than 100,000 cases each over the past 14 days. Florida and Texas, where the governor, Greg Abbott, called the data, quote, unacceptable. I know that some people feel that wearing a mask is inconvenient or that it is like an infringement of freedom. But I also know that wearing a mask will help us to keep Texas open. And urged residents to maintain precautions to avoid another lockdown. Because not taking action to slow the spread will cause COVID to spread even worse, risking people's lives and ultimately leading to the closure of more businesses.

That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.