The NPR Politics Podcast - Not Too Far Left, But Left Enough: Kasich and Sanders Speak On DNC Night One

Episode Date: August 18, 2020

Those were the dual messages of the first night of the Democratic convention from former Republican governor of Ohio John Kasich and progressive firebrand Sen. Bernie Sanders.There was a heavy focus on the pandemic, including a powerful speech from Kristin Urquiza, the daughter of a Trump supporter who died after contracting the virus.And, Michelle Obama wants people to make a plan about how they'll cast a ballot.This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, campaign correspondent Asma Khalid, and senior political editor and correspondent Ron Elving.Connect:Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.Find and support your local public radio station.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Asma Khalid. I'm covering the presidential campaign. And I'm Ron Elving, editor-correspondent. The time now is 11.37 p.m. on Monday, August 17th. This was the first night of the Democratic Convention. It has come and gone. Asma, you are there at the convention. Oh, wait, sort of. You're in close proximity to where Joe Biden is. Yeah, I'm in Delaware, right? But there is no real physical convention that we're thinking of as normally takes place. I mean, this was largely a made for TV event. It was it was virtual. And

I'm sure we'll talk more about this throughout the podcast, but it was a really sort of, I think, strange convention, I think, to watch. I mean, Ron, you cover loads of these, so I'm sure you have that better historical background of what a convention ought to sound and feel like. I can't add this to my list of conventions that I've covered because there's no convention to cover. This is a convention where people do not convene. What we saw was, especially for the first, say, 90 minutes, essentially like a 30-second television spot for a political party or a political candidate stretched to an hour and beyond. Now, we did get to some powerful moments, and we'll talk about

those. And there were speeches by Bernie Sanders and then ultimately by Michelle Obama that are memorable speeches. We'll talk about them probably in Michelle Obama's case for years. But the first moment that really punched through the format was a young woman named Kristen talking about her father. So in late May, after the stay-at-home order was lifted in Arizona, my dad went to a karaoke bar with his friends. A few weeks later, he was put on a ventilator. And after five agonizing days, he died alone in the ICU with a nurse holding his hand. My dad was a healthy 65-year-old. His only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump. And for that, he paid with his life. Yeah, she said that her dad had voted for President Trump. Yeah, and I think, you know, as much as we're talking about how unusual this convention is,

because it's not really, it is a very unconventional convention. But I think that there's moments like what we heard from Kristen, which are going to be shared. I mean, already you saw this on social media going around. These are the moments that Democrats were hoping would come out of this convention, which are shareable viral moments. And to me, there is a sense that you can get these moments and that they're very clear when you don't have a live audience. You know, how many of these moments there'll be, I don't know. We'll have to see as the days go on. One other moment that stood out was when George Floyd's brothers spoke. It was a very short part

of this night, but it pierced through. My brother George was selfless. He always made sacrifices for his family, friends, and even complete strangers. George had a giving spirit, a spirit that has shown up on streets around our nation and around the world. People of all races, all ages, all genders, all backgrounds, peacefully protesting in the name of love and unity. The main attraction of the night, the big speech, the longest speech, the one that closed out the evening came from former First Lady Michelle Obama. If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can and they will if we don't make a change in this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.

She can give a speech even alone, even even without a crowd. And she seemed to have sort of two messages, which I think are the messages of this night. One was about voting and the other was about Donald Trump and why he shouldn't be reelected. And in a sense, both of those points were about character. Certainly, she was attacking Donald Trump's character in terms that are highly unusual, really, at this level of politics. And she was also talking about testing voters' character in terms of what they were willing to sacrifice and invest

in making sure that they got their vote done this fall, this time. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is. And it is what it is, is a line President Trump said about the number of people who have died from coronavirus. And you know, Tam, this was not purely just criticism directed at the president for kicks. I mean, this was her focusing on the fact that

people need to get out and vote. There was a line where she acknowledged that she's not somebody who really likes politics herself, but that it is urgently important for people to vote regardless of where they were, you know, four years ago. And, you know, we've heard a lot from Democrats about the need to register for vote by mail. And she acknowledged that that's an important thing to do. But she also said something else. We've got to vote early, in person if we can. We've got to request our mail-in ballots right now, tonight, and send them back immediately.

And follow up to make sure they're received. And then make sure our friends and families do the same. We have got to grab our comfortable shoes, put on our masks, pack a brown bag dinner and maybe breakfast too. Because we've got to be willing to stand in line all night if we have to. You know, that is a somewhat different message. That is a put on a mask, go stand in a long line message, which is a little different from vote early, vote by mail, everyone should vote by mail. You know, Tam, this is a different note than what we traditionally have been hearing from Democrats. But look, in the last week, I actually had a conversation with a Democrat who made this

point to me that she does think that perhaps they're going to have to start, you know, shifting their message around voting because of some of the concerns with what's been going on with the postal system. So it was striking to me to hear Michelle Obama talk to folks about, you know, putting on their masks and potentially waiting in line all night long if needed. One other major theme of the night was unity. And when we get back from this quick break, we will hear what Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders had to say at the convention. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Google. Google's free tools

are designed to help millions of businesses around the country adapt to a new way of working. From updating their business hours, to switching to curbside pickup, to activating online booking, small businesses are staying connected to their customers with Google. They can even add gift card and donation links on Google so they can get support from their community. Explore the free tools that are designed to help millions of small businesses at google.com slash small business. Black voters play a crucial role for any Democrat who seeks to win the White House, but some big divides amongst that bloc and some serious ambivalence could determine who is elected president this November. Listen now on the Code Switch podcast from NPR. And we're back.

And there was a speech from Bernie Sanders, and there was a speech from John Kasich, who is a Republican who ran for president in the last cycle and was the governor from Ohio. So the convention producers put out this sort of, look at this, look at all of these people who support Joe Biden for vastly different reasons. I mean, look, the Democrats were trying to present this idea that you don't need to necessarily be aligned on policy. Right now, they want to make sure that voters are aligned behind one singular mission, and that is ensuring that Donald Trump is a one-term president. And so, you know, we heard from John Kasich, former governor of Ohio, talk about the fact that he is aware that some Republicans might be a little concerned about going for Joe Biden, and he was trying to alleviate some of those concerns. And I thought what was so, you know, notable is that he seemed to be trying to

address the specific criticism that we've heard from the Trump campaign and supporters of the president about who Joe Biden is. I'm sure there are Republicans and independents who couldn't imagine crossing over to support a Democrat. They fear Joe may turn sharp left and leave them behind. I don't believe that because I know the measure of the man. It's reasonable, faithful, respectful. And you know, no one pushes Joe around. Bernie Sanders was there to assure you that Biden will veer far enough left to be worthy of the votes of Bernie Sanders supporters. So not too far left, but Bernie Sanders is there to tell you he'll veer far enough. Joe supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. This will give 40 million workers a pay

raise and push the wage scale up for everyone else. Joe will also make it easier for workers to join unions, create 12 weeks of paid family leave, fund universal pre-K for three and four-year-olds, and make child care affordable for millions of families. It's like they're all giving testimonials. But if you realize that you have this juxtaposition of what John Kasich is saying next to Bernie Sanders, it's like they're both saying essentially that, look, you can trust Joe Biden. He's left enough. While the other guy says, you can trust Joe Biden. He's not too far left. And they also had these like people talking to their smartphones about how they voted for Trump, but now they're going to vote for Biden. You know, it was like not super subtle what the message was. You know, there was a lot of contrast between tonight's message and 2016.

But if you go back to 2008, you had Joe Biden on the ticket with Barack Obama. And that was in many respects at this point, the greatest hit of the Democrats in the last 20 years. And at that point, they were all about groundbreaking. Look at this ticket, the first African-American president. This is really something that's groundbreaking. And this time around with Biden and Kamala Harris, they're not talking about groundbreaking quite so much. They're talking more about what might be called a rescue mission. They're trying to bring America back from Donald Trump. And that's what the Kasich contribution is. That's what the Bernie contribution is. Whatever their disagreements, they really want to focus on getting the country back from Donald Trump.

I mean, and on that note, look, there are certainly progressive activists who were not thrilled with the tone of tonight so far. And I saw some of that messaging. I mean, there are people who feel like there wasn't enough attention paid to some people who have been particularly hurt by some of President Trump's policies, whether that's, you know, immigrants, Muslims, Latinos. I mean, there's a whole group of people that you saw on social media who were not really thrilled at all with the attention being given to, say, particularly Republicans supporting Joe Biden. And look, it's the first night, so I don't know what we're going to fully see in some of the subsequent evenings. But to me,

it was striking that there wasn't loads of attention put on specifically communities that have been affected by President Trump. There was, you know, I think, criticism around the pandemic, and I always handle that, but it was much more around governing and specifically the pandemic response. All right, let's just talk quickly before we go about the format, because it was different. At the end of both the Sanders speech and the Michelle Obama speech, there was applause. But it was people at home on Zoom basically applauding from their living rooms. It was sort of like if anybody's watched the NBA, where there's just like all these weird people clapping randomly. That's sort of what it was. And it was a little bit delayed. And

then they were like, oh, wait, I'm clapping on screen. It's not going to replace the real thing. Great photography. Some of the photographs were breathtaking. A lot of uplifting music. Maybe not enough Bruce Springsteen for Bruce fans. Too much for the rest of the listening world. But you know what I'm saying. There was a lot of Bruce.

You know what I'm saying. There was a lot of Bruce. You know what I'm saying. There was a lot of the rising. But look, for people who come back every four years to see a Democratic convention, they were trying to reassure these people, those people, that this is their party. This is their convention. They should be watching. And even though it's not very exciting, not having a big stage and a big crowd, it is in some sense or another almost like going to church. If you're a really, really good Democrat, you're supposed to show up for this ritual every four years. That's a wrap for tonight. Many of us from the NPR politics team will be covering the convention live with context and insights on your local public radio stations. And you can also

follow along by visiting NPR.org or by asking your smart speaker to play NPR or your local station by name. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Asma Fahlid. I'm covering the presidential campaign. And I'm Ron Elving, editor correspondent. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.