The NPR Politics Podcast - Roundup: Feinstein's Legacy, Shutdown, Biden And Democracy

Episode Date: September 29, 2023

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, is dead at 90. The government is about to shutdown over intra-GOP disagreements. And Biden gave a speech warning about the continuing threats to American Democracy.This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, White House reporter Deepa Shivaram, congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales, and national political correspondent Mara Liasson.The podcast is produced by Casey Morell and Elena Moore. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.Unlock access to this and other bonus content by supporting The NPR Politics Podcast+. Sign up via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Connect:Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey there, it's Tamara Keith. Whenever I meet a politics podcast listener out in the wild, the first thing I say is thank you.org slash politics survey, all one word, so we can keep making this show better for you. Thank you so much, and here's the show. Hi, this is Travis Peacock from Ningbo, China, celebrating the first day of Mid-Autumn Festival. This podcast is recorded at 1.08 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, September 29th. Things may have changed by the time you hear it, but I will still be stuffing my face full of mooncakes. Okay, here's the show. Ah, mooncakes. I love that name, Travis Peacock. That's the best name I've ever heard. I do too. And mooncakes. I'll take some of those now. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Claudia Grisales. I cover Congress.

And I'm Mara Liason, national political correspondent. We are starting our weekly roundup with this news. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California has died at 90 years old. She was the longest serving woman in the Senate. Claudia, how are her colleagues remembering her today? Well, there is a very solemn and somber tone here on the Hill today with everything going on. Even despite that, it has been tribute after tribute on the Senate floor, as well as the House floor. The floor on the Senate side was opened with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calling her a giant, the loss of a giant in the Senate, and remarking this incredible impact that she's had in these more than three decades of serving

in Congress. And all of the first, she was the longest serving woman in the Senate. She started out filling out roles in California as the first woman, for example, to be mayor in San Francisco. And we know that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her family were very close. They were in the chamber when Schumer made these remarks in the gallery. And Pelosi had her own tribute on the House floor as well. Today, Feinstein's desk is adorned with a black drape and a bouquet of white roses. So it's quite a tough day here on the Hill. Well, and it's not just Democrats who are remembering her fondly. There are a lot of Republicans weighing in as well, which is maybe a throwback to a different time. Right. It is a reprieve from all the partisan fighting in the midst of being on the verge of a government shutdown.

We saw women on both sides of the aisle, for example, in the Senate stand up and talk about how much she championed issues that mattered to them and inspired them and other women to serve. For example, Susan Collins brought a painting into the Senate chamber that Feinstein had gifted her, these very touching emotional moments. And it seems like this is going to carry out throughout the day and for the many days and weeks to come. Mara, let's talk about how her career started in California when she first came to national prominence as the result of a shocking assassination. Dan White was a former San Francisco City Council member. He shot and killed the mayor, George Moscone, and supervisor Harvey Milk,

who was a trailblazing gay politician in San Francisco. And that is how Dianne Feinstein, who was on the city council at the time, became the mayor. And Feinstein actually broke the news to the press that day. Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed. I mean, the remarkable thing is hearing the shock of the press corps there. This was an incredible moment. I had just moved to San Francisco, believe it or not. And a couple years after that, when she was mayor in about 1980 or 81,

she was one of the very first elected officials I ever interviewed as a radio reporter. I'd worked in print before, but I remember this so well, standing with her in City Hall, interviewing her. We both were standing up, and she was exactly my size, which is pretty tall. And it was an amazing moment. And she has had an incredible long career. She has this outsized role in my mind because she was part of this wave of women elected to the Senate in 1992 as part of what became known as the year of the woman. There was this huge, not huge by today's standards, but like this remarkable crop of women elected to the Congress that year. I was like, you know, nearly a teenager getting interested in politics, getting interested in journalism. Yeah, she inspired a new generation of women when it

comes to public service and all kinds of other fields because of the impact she had in so many different areas. She touched so many different issues. Yeah, so let's talk about that. She was really critical in getting the assault weapons ban passed in the 1990s in Congress. No doubt in part because she had already taken on gun rights groups and she felt very strongly about gun control because of what happened in San Francisco City Hall. And then later, Feinstein led the writing and release of a report looking into torture conducted by the U.S. government in the post-9-11 era. It was really controversial and challenging, but she pushed it through. And she worked with a lot of Republican senators in that case. That was a very big moment for her in terms of working in this bipartisan group to address this pressing issue in terms of old, she's had a lot of health challenges recently.

Remarkably, though, she actually voted. She took a vote yesterday. Yeah, I think that the health issues, the calls for her to resign, the kind of chatter about whether she was able to do her job, I think those are going to fade away. But I think her legacy is going to overshadow that. Claudia, right now, everyone is focused on honoring her memory, including the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, who now has to decide who will replace her. But what does that process look like? What are you expecting? Right. So he has already made this commitment.

He's been standing by it for a very long time to appoint a black woman to fill this seat. And so he said earlier this month, he spoke with NBC and said it would not be any of the candidates, for example, who are running for that seat at this time. That includes Representative Barbara Lee, who was an early contender as a potential candidate to come in and serve in that interim basis. So he has a very big decision before him in terms of making that choice. But we know that he wants to make good on that still many months later after he committed to this. And for the Senate itself, they do have time in terms of right now they're focused on trying to avert a government shutdown. They're focused on trying to put together a bipartisan plan. So they're working with Republicans.

It's not such an urgent pressing issue in terms of getting her seat filled. But I imagine Newsom will be moving on this as quickly as possible. And that person would be the second Black female senator from California. Yes, after Vice President Kamala Harris was elected, this left a vacant seat that Newsom appointed with Alex Padilla. So that's the first Latino senator from California. But many wanted him to make good later to appoint a Black woman to that seat. And this is all more complicated because there is a very active and contentious race for that seat that Feinstein held. She was planning to retire at the end of her term. All right, we're going to take a quick break. And when we get back,

talking about a government shutdown. And we're back. And it's a good day to have a timestamp because things are moving. Will the government shut down this weekend? Well, it seems increasingly likely, but unlike some past shutdowns, this isn't about a last-minute failure to bridge the differences between Democrats and Republicans. There was a bipartisan deal in May to set spending levels and, in theory, avoid a crisis later, as in now. And yet we are here. So, Claudia, where do things stand right at this moment? It's quite a mess up here on the Hill. We see the Senate and the House going in completely different directions, it seems, in terms of how to solve this government shutdown threat. It seems

we're headed into it because the Senate is working hard to try and put together a bipartisan plan, but they've got to go through a lot of procedural steps before they get there. It's something that likely will not get done in the next day, or they face a lot of challenges getting it done in a day, and then trying to send it to the House, convince them to pick it up and to pass it. Meanwhile, the House was trying to address the issue themselves, but they're struggling to pass their own stopgap measure to try to keep the government open. And that stopgap measure is not something that would get enough support in the Senate or with the president. So like, it was on a road to nowhere, and now it just hit a wall.

Exactly. Dead on arrival, even if they were able to overcome their challenges within their own Republican conference. Okay, so let me break this down, because that was a lot. The Senate is working in a bipartisan way to pass a short term spending bill that would just keep the government open for like another 45 days so that negotiations could happen on a bigger budget thing. And maybe they could keep the government open for a whole year. On the House side, if they actually put that bill on the floor, it would pass because Democrats would support it and some share of Republicans would support it and it would pass. And yet the speaker, Kevin McCarthy, basically has no interest in putting that bill on the floor. fight over the gavel. He's been weakened with each battle within his own conference from when he was elected Speaker to the debt limit fight this summer to now. So that is the choice he is facing if he brings the Senate bill onto the floor. Now, senators are now working to try and make

their legislation more appealing for the House side. They're trying to look at a border provision of some kind, because this is what some House Republicans have argued as of late that they would like to see in any kind of stopgap legislation. And again, this is all just short term. For example, the Senate continuing resolution, as it's known, would only go until November 17. But that all said, that is the choice that is facing McCarthy and why there's going to be this possibility that he'll say, no, I don't want to bring the Senate bill on our floor because I will lose my gavel. Wait a second. Claudia, are you saying that the hard right wing of Kevin McCarthy's Republican conference in the House is saying that they would rather shut down the government than pass a bipartisan deal. In other words, a government shutdown is better than relying on Democratic votes.

Yeah, this is what they are arguing. It is amazing. These hardliner conservatives look at any kind of effort, for example, by the Senate that is bipartisan, is radioactive. We don't have any interest in that. And we've heard it all week, for example, from Republicans within their own conference, which was part of the signs that were put up during a House committee hearing over this impeachment inquiry into President Biden. And these are quotes by Republicans within their own conference calling it a clown show, an unmitigated disaster, because these

members of this very hard right wing of the Republican conference are trying to stop any effort to keep the government open, even if it's bipartisan. Can you think of a weaker speaker than Kevin McCarthy in our lifetimes? No. Mara, can you? No. My lifetime is longer than yours. But no, the answer is no. It took him 15 ballots to get to be the speaker. He's made concession after concession to Republicans who are aligned with Donald Trump every single time they have rebuffed him. And they're saying that either you do it our way or we're going to pass what's known as a motion to vacate, in other words, to fire Kevin McCarthy. So, Mara, here's a question I have for you. We know that this is basically a Republican problem.

Mitch McConnell over in the Senate, the minority leader in the Senate, has said this is a really bad idea. We shouldn't do this. Wait, you mean shut down the government? Shut down the government. Is this going to be a thing where the public says, oh, my God, Congress sucks. They can't do anything shutdowns over the years, Congress has made sure to sand down some of the rough edges of a shutdown. In other words, some government agencies are exempt from a shutdown, Social Security and Medicare checks still go out. But in the past, the party that controls the House, which is the House that the Constitution says must originate spending bills, has been blamed for government shutdowns. That's been the experience in the past. Now, historical rules only work till they stop working. And maybe if there's chaos, maybe if it affects the economy, then that all gets laid at the foot of the President of the United States. I think that there are a lot of Republicans who are worried about this, especially House Republicans who represent districts that Joe Biden won. And they don't want a government shutdown. They're worried about being blamed.

I want to talk about White House positioning on this. Kevin McCarthy has asked for a meeting with the president. And our colleague Asma Khalid had an exclusive interview with White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients last night. And let's just say that they don't think that that meeting needs to happen. There's no need for a meeting right now. The meeting that has to take place is in the House of Representatives, where House Republicans come together and fund the government. So they're basically saying, ball is in your court. Do you think that that is long-term sustainable, Mara?

The alternative to saying that, to saying to Republicans, hey, you've got to get your act together and fund the government, is for Democrats to come in and save, quote, save Kevin McCarthy. Well, guess what? If they do that, the House Republicans have said we're going to fire Kevin McCarthy. So I think that right now that's pretty much the only thing that the White House can do. They also can make sure the public knows that the House Republicans have chosen a government shutdown over an effort to work across the aisle. Well, we will be talking about this a lot more in the coming days. Claudia, get up and stretch your legs.

I'm coming back for Can't Let It Go. Can't wait. All right. It's time for a quick break. And we're back with Deepa Shivaram. Hello, Deepa. Hey, Tam. You have been out on the road following President Biden around as he traveled out West, raising money and also talking a lot about democracy. So let's start with that democracy speech. Tell us about it. Yeah. So this was in Tempe, Arizona. It was Biden's fourth speech that he's given on the state of democracy since he's been president. These are kind of these key addresses that kind of come up on these significant

dates or in significant places. He gave one on the anniversary of January 6th, for example, and another one that was most recently done was made just days before the midterm elections last year. And they all kind of echo the same sentiment, right, that democracy in America is vulnerable, it's under attack by Republican extremists or MAGA extremists, as the president says. And these speeches all kind of have a similar rhetoric. And he says things like our kids and our grandkids are watching, that America is at an inflection moment. But there were some new lines in this speech that took place in Arizona that really stood out to me. And one was on how democracies die. Take a listen.

We should all remember democracies don't have to die at the end of a rifle. They can die when people are silent, when they fail to stand up or condemn the threats to democracy. When people are willing to give away that which is most precious to them because they feel frustrated, disillusioned, tired, alienated. I get it. I really do. I get it. And that part of the speech kind of stuck out to me because right after that speech, he attended a fundraiser in Arizona, and he was talking about how after Charlottesville happened, which is the reason that Biden said he decided to run in 2020, that silence in his family is complicity. And so he couldn't stand by and be silent. He had to run for president. And he was talking about how democracies kind of die when people stay silent. So I thought that parallel was kind of interesting.

And Deepa, I followed the president to several fundraisers last week. You followed him to several this week. He often in these remarks to smaller groups of donors give some insight into his thinking. And he talks much more openly about the fact that he believes that Donald Trump is going to be the nominee. That's sort of coming up a lot. And, you know, just to remind our listeners, like when he goes to these fundraisers, these are not on camera. There's no audio coming out of this. And so this is something that we're getting his transcript of.

We know what he's saying because press is allowed in, but he kind of gets to talk more, a little bit more off the cuff, I would say. One example is that, you know that there was a report back in 2020 where Trump called veterans suckers. So that's something that Biden brought up yesterday in the speech. And then he goes to the fundraisers, both in Arizona and California. And he is saying, yeah, he's calling Trump the likely GOP nominee. He's telling specific stories about him. He was mentioning him in the context of talking about Charlottesville, talking about Trump's relationship with Vladimir Putin. He was talking about Trump yesterday and how he has responded to the UAW strikes, for example. So you are hearing him really talk to Trump more directly

and more specifically in these fundraisers. And it's starting to go beyond that, too, in things like these major addresses. Yeah, a White House official told me last week that there will be three pillars to President Biden's reelection messaging. And this week fits squarely into that. It's finish the job. So Biden going out and talking about legislative accomplishments and implementing the things like the Inflation Reduction Act, and then defending democracy is another pillar. And this speech fits clearly into that. And then defending freedoms like abortion rights and voting rights. What's interesting about the defend democracy part of that message is that for a long time, Democrats and pundits thought that defending democracy was kind of abstract and that people

didn't really care about that that much. They were more interested in kitchen table issues. Well, guess what? It turned out, we missed this in the midterms, but defending democracy was kind of a kitchen table issue. It wasn't very abstract. People understood that Donald Trump tried to steal their vote or throw out their vote or make sure their vote didn't count

because he was trying to overturn an election that the independent judiciary, which is the referee in our democratic system, declared free and fair. In the midterms, I remember I met a voter in Henderson, Nevada, and this is maybe like a unicorn voter, but I remember our conversation so specifically because he told me he had voted Republican his entire life and he was voting for Democrats for the first time in the midterm elections because he was worried about a peaceful transfer of power. January 6th had really stuck with him.

All right, we're going to take a quick break. And when we get back, it's time for Can't Let It Go. And we're back. And Claudia Grisales, hello once more. This is like the Super Bowl of Can't Let It Go. We have four of us here. This is extra special. As we end the show like we do every week with Can't Let It Go, we have four of us here. This is extra special. As we end the show like we do every week with Can't Let It Go,

the part of the show where we talk about the things that we just cannot stop thinking about, politics or otherwise, there was just too much we couldn't let go of. Claudia, what can't you let go of? Well, I'm in a bit of mourning. That's my Can't Let It Go because Because I was supposed to go I've had like this amazing year, maybe it's a post pandemic year of going to awesome concerts. And so I had purchased wristbands to the ACL festival in Austin. This is the Austin City Limits Festival. It's coming up. It's two weekends long. And this week I was forced to resell my wristbands.

So I get to keep them. Because of the government shutdown? Well, that's part of it. It's part of it is the hill is crazy. Our schedule for our family is crazy. And so we've just got to give it up. I've got to let it go. You literally had to let it go. I hope you were able to sell it for a good markup. I was, no, no. By the way, if you ever buy wristbands, you will not get that much of a good markup on Ace Heel. It's a little different. It's an amazing festival. I've been tracking it since the beginning.

I lived there when it started. It was just one little weekend during like triple digit temps. There was like the Dust Bowl weekend. I went that year when I was pregnant. I joke with my youngest daughter that that was her first concert. She got to see Coldplay when we were there. But this year, I've been waiting for a good year for their lineup. And this year is amazing. It's Kendrick Lamar, Foo Fighters, Kali Uchis, Illumineers, Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette. It goes on and on and on. So lucky for me, it will be streaming.

Some of these I can watch. Maybe I'll put on the wristbands that are inactive now and imagine I'm there. Oh, and the food's amazing too. Sorry, but congrats, Austin. So sad. I'll go next. And I don't know whether this is politics or fashion or is it the politics of fashion. But there was a giant kerfuffle. Far too much thought went to this

small thing. Far too much thought, given that we are facing a government shutdown. But, you know, at least the parties could come together on this. So what happened is Senator John Fetterman from Pennsylvania is not one for suits. And like, I've only seen him in a suit a couple of times. Most of the time you see him in baggy shorts and a Carhartt hoodie. And that is his uniform. It's his uniform for everything. And so Chuck Schumer, the majority leader in the Senate, he was like, hey, guys, don't enforce our informal rule about dress code. Like, sergeants, just let him in. And that set off a firestorm because apparently people want their members of Congress to dress formally. It required major negotiations and diplomacy and a bipartisan coming together to pass a rule

brought together between Mitt Romney and Joe Manchin. They came together and they got unanimous consent to require this man to wear a suit if he is going to be on the floor in the infetterman's response his his his office his senate office put out a an official statement that was a meme and it's just like kevin james from king of queens with his hands in his pocket sort of shrugging. And that's his response. Oh my gosh. Deepa, what can't you let go of? All right. Well, you guys know I love talking about fat bears.

Hank the Tank has been something that I could not let go of in the past. And my can't let it go today is also partially politically related because the government shutdown is why we can't have nice things. Turns out that Fat Bear Week is coming up. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it is basically a competition of the bears that weigh the most out in Alaska. They are beefing up for the winter and there's just these giant, floppy, huge bears that weigh literally thousands of pounds. It's glorious. It's one of the internet's best things. I'm going to leave that up to the professionals. I don't know how they weigh them. So how does this work on the internet? Like, how do I learn about the fat bears?

Tam, this is how democracy works. People vote. People vote on the fat bears. Oh. Tam, this is how democracy works. People vote. People vote on the fat bears. But the thing is, with the government shutdown, the National Park Service also gets affected. And so there was a CNN article that came out today, and a senior official from the National Park Service said, the bears will continue to get fat. We will not be able to report on their progress in that regard. And this is a really big deal. There's a reigning champion nicknamed Bear Force One.

And now we won't know. We won't know the status of Fat Bear Week if the government shuts down. Okay. I hope that we... Yes. There are lots of reasons

and billions of dollars of economic activity to want to forestall a government shutdown. But hey, also Fat Bear Week. Mara, what can't you let go of? My can't let it go story for the week is Taylor Swift and her new maybe boyfriend, maybe not, Travis Kelsey. And I come by this, can't let it go, honestly, I was actually in Kansas City on Tuesday. And what to me is so interesting about this, I'm very interested in the Taylor Swift phenomenon. There's no one in her generation who has a greater mass appeal than

Taylor Swift, more loyal, more devoted fans. And there seems to be a split among the Taylor Swifties about whether or not Travis Kelsey is the right guy for her. In other words, which is more on brand for Taylor? Is it going with a very popular football player who probably a lot of America will want her to be with. They didn't really care about her other kind of musician boyfriends. Or is it more on brand, as some women in Kansas City told me, for her to stay single and independent, that she doesn't need a man? I'm just really interested in seeing how this plays out. She's out of everyone's league. I have also spoken to people who think that this is like totally just fake.

It could be fake yes i've heard that this might be just a promotional ploy to steal attention away from olivia rodrigo who has a new album out she's not like that would be bad for her brand if this is fake no that would be bad for her she's not that not that way. So on the dating, I'm just going to jump in and say, you know, who are we to judge? Taylor, you do you. You do you. Agreed. And just give us more albums.

That's all. Keep going. However this ends, give us an album. Yes. All right. That is a wrap for this week. Our executive producer is Mathani Mathuri. Our editor is Eric McDaniel.

Our producers are Elena Moore and Casey Morrell. Thanks to Krishna Dev Kalimer and Lexi Schipittel. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Deepa Shibram. I also cover the White House. I'm Claudia Grisales. I cover Congress.

And I'm Mara Liason, national political correspondent. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Claudia Grisales. I cover Congress. And I'm Mara Liason with Buster.

We're the National Political Correspondents. Oh, Buster. I love you, Buster.