The Young Turks - Part 2: Day 3 of 2020 DNC

Episode Date: October 8, 2020

Part 2: Cenk Uygur and Michael Shure breakdown day 3 of the 2020 DNC.  Speakers: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Governor Tony Evers, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the Vice Presidential Nominee, and Former President Barack Obama Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Our diversity is our strength, our unity is our power. This month, as America marks the centennial of women, finally women winning the right to vote, we do so with 105 women in the House. Proudly, 90 are Democrats. To win the vote, women marched and fought and never gave in. We stand on their shoulders, charged with carrying forward the unfinished work of our nation advanced by heroes, from Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall. Four years ago, when President Obama and Vice President Biden were in the White House, they made us proud, And their leadership made our country great. In that spirit, we come together now, not to decry the darkness, but to light a way forward

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whose heart is full of love for America and rid the country of Trump's heartless disregard for America's goodness. Joe Biden's faith in God gives him the courage to lead. Jill Biden's love gives him the strength to persevere. Joe Biden is the president we need right now. Battle tested, forward-looking, honest and authentic. He has never forgotten who he is fighting for. And Kamala Harris is the vice president we need right now, committed to our Constitution, brilliant in defending it, and a witness to the women of this nation that our voices will. be heard.

Our mission is to fight for future equal to the ideals of our founders, our hopes for our children, and the sacrifices of our veterans, our brave men and women in uniform, and their families. We will increase our majority in the House, we will win a Democratic majority in the Senate, we will elect Hamila Harris Vice President, and we will elect Joe Biden, president of the United States of America. bless you and God bless America. Thank you, Speaker Pelosi. Thank you, Speaker Pelosi.

So the part that I liked about that is her constant reference to Mitch McConnell. Don't forget, this is the election is not just about the presidential race, so important that we control the Senate. She obviously is the Speaker of the House, the other branch of Congress, but without the Senate, it's so hard to do things. And so look, I don't think it's impossible. And I don't think Nancy Pelosi tried hard enough. But it certainly makes it easier if the Democrats have the Senate. And the thing that I would love about it, one of the things, one is hopefully get the minimum product, and we'll come back to you on Michael on that. But also, it puts

pressure on the Democrats. So now we get to find out who you are. And you don't get to make excuses anymore. And Mitch McConnell can't block everything. Later, I can talk about why I think Pelosi didn't try hard enough and how you could have still gotten some of those things passed, even with Mitch McConnell running the Senate. Yeah, well, and I think it's also interesting and the slight she gave to Kevin McCarthy by not mentioning him in a little way, right? It's like, Mitch McConnell, Donald drop, Mitch McConnell Donald Trump. But in fact, Kevin McCarthy doesn't have as much power as those two do. And they are the clearly the barriers. One thing that we can't, you know, we talk about the things that all of these people want to do,

the last point you made, Jank, should never be glossed over. Once and if they win the Senate, even if their majority goes, their minorityness goes up to a tighter imbalance in the Senate in the Republicans favor, that their opportunity to do these things, if they get the House and Senate will be held against them if they don't get things done. That this is their chance to sort of walk the walk or walk the talk that they've been talking about for quite a while and being impotent because of Mitch McConnell. And I've said it here before, I've said it a lot. I think that Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell are two of the best politicians I've ever seen work on Capitol Hill. And I, you know how I feel about Mitch

McConnell. But taking how good he is at his job, I think it's pretty extreme. extraordinary what he's been able to block. And I know you have problems with how hard the Democrats have fought that. And we might disagree on that. It doesn't matter. But you're right about the one thing that does matter, which is if they get this and this happens, it's going to put a huge pressure that Democrats can live up to. Pressure isn't just a bad thing, right?

You shouldn't buckle under it. You should actually capitalize when you can, especially in politics, as you've seen Republicans do for so long. The other thing, we talk about this in a sort of the MVP thing, we talk about. this all the things that Democrats want to do and Joe Biden wants to do. I think infrastructure was the one thing I would have included to Jenk because it's a job creator. Biden has talked about infrastructure in the Midwest a lot. I think he's going to live up to that. But the next administration is going to have their hands full. This recovery will not be easy. So it's not

just about what I'm going to give you and what initiatives I'm going to pass is how I deal with a hand that America hasn't had to deal with in at least a century. That's going to be tough. Yeah, so just for the record, I think Mitch McConnell is the heart of darkness and potentially a bigger problem than Donald Trump. But he's as good a politician as there has been in my lifetime. He's gotten everything for the Republicans. Whether they were in the minority, the majority, he kicked the Democrats' asses up and down this country for as long as he's been been in the Senate. But I billion percent disagree with you on Nancy Pelosi.

I think she's a terrible legislator, terrible. Well, I didn't say legislator, Jane. I didn't say that, I said politician. So I don't know about terrible, I don't know. I do think Nancy Pelosi's been an extraordinary speaker at the job of speaker, maybe small as speaker, if you want to put it that way, but it always has a capital S. The way she's held her caucus together when it could have frayed. the way that she has been able to do absolutely nothing.

Well, well, no, but to play defense, Jank, I think playing defense against is, I know we're gonna disagree on it, but I think it's really important. And I think that that's part of politics is not always playing offense, is playing good defense and holding the caucus together that's as varied as the Democratic House caucus has been from its most progressive to its most almost going to be turning into Republicans. Some of them did. And I think that that's, you know, that to me, in the job of speaker, I think it's pretty extraordinary. Yeah, she's been extraordinarily horrible. And so I'll give you an example. That's too flip for me. I can't, I can't just say, I don't think she's

going to be horrible. Horrible. I think she's been extraordinary. Look, when she, when she had a super majority, she brags about passing Mitt Romney's health care plan. Congratulations. That's literally like, oh, Lily Ledbetter. These are such layups. Am I glad they happen? Yes. But they're unbelievable layups. And so she's missed two footer after two footer. And she's missing on purpose. She's a Republican in Mitch McConnell running the Senate that every bill that goes across the hall, you know what happens to it. And then you have a White House that's all sustaining interference. And they've gotten nothing done. They've gotten nothing done on the other side. They don't might get anything done, Michael. They already gave the tax cuts to the rich.

Then they gave four or five trillion dollars to the largest companies in the world during this pandemic. And they're like mission accomplished me. Just present a trillion dollars. The fact that Donald Trump has nothing to run on, I think has a lot to do with the House of Representatives. No, they gave him the giant defense bill that he wanted. They even gave him funding for the wall eventually. They're the worst. The funding for the wall thing, that was a, come on, Jank. That was a, that was a throw away in a budget, in a budget shutdown bill that they knew wasn't going to happen because of all the approvals that had to go through to get to get there. What did Trump ask for that he did that Nancy Pelosi bravely blocked? What did he ask for that? Well, he wouldn't ask it of Nancy Pelosi. He would send it to. He didn't ask for anything. He didn't actually want to get anything done. All he wanted was the damn tax cuts.

That's all Mr. Donald ever wanted. And they got it super easy. Everything they ever wanted, they got super easy. They just didn't want anything else. Here, I'll give you an example of what Pelosi could have done to vote to the House of Representatives because of the way that they were shutting him down. And they knew that. And that's exactly what McCarthy said. Bring things through my office and he wouldn't do it. Trump wouldn't do it. Michael, they weren't, they don't, I literally, other than a giant completed wall, I have no idea what else they wanted, the Trump people. He doesn't care to govern, all he wants to do was a transfer of income to the richest people

in the country, and he already did it, and Pelosi helped him do it. So, okay, but I'll give you a crystal clear example of where she could have fought harder, and you could say, oh, it's too much to ask for, but it isn't. So they passed $15 minimum wage in the House. Okay, great, I'm happy, I'm happy to give her credit. Then it goes to the Senate where Mitch McIntylla clearly kills it. Okay, for Nancy Pelosi, that's when you go back to bed or go back to the phone and start calling donors and donors and donors and donors and you're done with it.

No, how about you actually do politics? And then you do a giant press conference, so you hold it in the hallway outside of Mitch McAddo's office, and you say, this is the person singly responsible for lower, or less, you know, wages in America. It is indisputable. And if any reporter says otherwise, they're lying to you, he is lowering your wages. And she wouldn't do any of that. Because she doesn't, she doesn't want the wages to be hired. And then when you talk to anybody who was involved with, as I have, with the pandemic relief, the CARES Act, the Heroes Act, everything that came out of the house, what she was able to get out of that at the most important time against a White House

that didn't want so much of that. I mean, it was in order to, the government was frozen and Nancy Pelosi broke through it. And that, to me, at the time when America needed it most was, and that was legislative. I mean, that's, she's, look, people who've studied the Congress, Jen, think she's among the most adept legislators around. I don't, yeah, they, well, I mean. I dismiss them. I know all those people. And to me, All they want is, look, Michael, I know you, and you are absolutely genuine, and we have a real genuine disagreement on it. I don't even want to talk about those people who live in Washington and kiss Nancy Pelosi

says 24-7 for a living. Scholars of the Congress, people who study the Congress, not people who work in it. Okay, Michael, on the CARES Act, PPP designed for the way that it was designed for small businesses was great, and I have given Nancy Pelosi credit for that every single time. But outside of that, the rest of it was, they gave $2 trillion to the largest companies. Then they said the Fed could do another $4 trillion. $500 billion was totally unaccountable and given to Mnuchin. So when you get the other crumbs off that table, when they've given away $6 trillion to Fortune 500 companies, you didn't do a great job.

At best, at best, you did the minimum. I think we don't like some of the legislation, which is different than what you. whether or not you think she is a good speaker. She's not a good speaker for what you want, in terms of a lot of the legislation you want. She's actually, I think, a pretty damn good legislator. But I'm talking about her more as a speaker than that. I mean, she was in a minority house that took us out of the financial crisis and was able to get the budget back on track with a White House, yes, that was on her side. But really in a minority in the house, that's very difficult time. And she's been called in now.

by a Republican president to help save the U.S. economy from collapse in a sense. I think that- I'm glad you brought that up. Michael, look at that example. So Bush crashes the economy, Obama's president, they barely get $700 billion in stimulus because Mitch McConnell, the Republicans beat them, bludgeon them politically, and they suck in politics. But didn't ask for enough.

Hold on, hold on, hold on. Then Trump crashes the economy, and he says, now I don't 700 billion. I want $7 trillion and Pelosi goes, oh, yes, sir, absolutely, sir. And they gave 10 times as much to Trump as they did to Obama. If that's not a record of pathetic failure, what is? You know, it's well, certainly it's different because these were, and I'm not saying that 2008 and 2009 were not disastrous. This was a pandemic was as different than anyone has ever had to deal with.

We've dealt with recessions in the economy before. And the emergency that this presented was so far different from what we had in 2008 and 2009. Not that that wasn't serious and not that that wasn't devastating, but it was on a different scale of everybody in America not being able to go outside. So I and go to work and go to a restaurant and get seen and get masks and get hand sanitized and get all the things that were needed. I do think that the stimulus that she voted for, for time she got Republicans voting for her stimulus packages back in 2009.

But now we're talking about when that's when she was speaker the first time, now we're talking about a totally different thing with this pandemic. I think she did a pretty damn good job and on the first go round. And I don't know enough about the second go round because it's been far more clandestine. And there have been people that, you know, she did say that she didn't want stopgap. She was strong about that, whether or not that was a good idea or not, it's too early to tell. All right, while we've been talking to Alan Shores joined as a member on YouTube and Mike Richards as well, you hit the join button below. That's a super easy way to do it. If you want to get your comments read

more often and participate in the show, t.t.com slash join is a great way to do that. Speaking of comments though, let's go to YouTube super chat. Steph fans says I'm a new member via YouTube and I subscribed on Twitch with my Amazon account too strong. I love it, Steph. You are too strong. By the way, speaking of too strong, we launched too strong coffee two days ago. We've already sold out of mugs. We're gonna try to get a new shipment. I'm worried we're gonna sell out of all the coffee and then it's gonna take a little longer to get to you guys. I'm serious. We'll get more. The mugs I'm not sure about, But we'll get more coffee. It's just going to take a little while. Thank you guys.

And if you want, the host should get a coffee or a mug or something like that. It does seem that way. Asher, do you agree with that? Yeah, okay, yeah. Asher says yes, plus the producers. All right, all right. You know, a great way to do it? Toostrongcoffee.com slash TYT. Okay, all right. We'll get you guys coffee, okay? And yes, the reviews are great. It tastes It's great, so thank you guys, too strong coffee.com slash TYT. Jesse Lee says the DSC is out of touch, and as you could tell, I largely agree. And people are confounded by me because I agree with the democratic principles.

I just don't think they live up to them very much. And so that's not, it's cable news. You don't see a lot of that nuance, unfortunately, I think. So anyways, Michael, you were mentioning something about the minimum product before Polonezsche Pelosi came on, if you remember. Yeah, that was. And I was saying that the one thing that you didn't mention that I would have included was just, you know, rejoining the Paris Accords and going in the direction of getting our footing back. The Iran nuclear deal looking at it. Again, the Arab nations that really

wanted it last time are now in a different spot. They're a little more wary of Iran than they may have been themselves. So there's a little bit more at play there. But I think Looking at that again, certainly, especially as you see Trump saying that the sanction should be put in place again against Iran and the United Nations, even though the UN by overwhelming numbers said that that shouldn't be the case. And then when the other thing I was just mentioning is that we were forgetting to talk about the landscape that the next president's going to be faced with. So all of these great things that you want Joe Biden or any president to do, they're also going to be faced with the rebuilding once there is a vaccine, presumably, with the rebuilding of an economy. that's going to be in tatters for a long time, and that's going to take a lot. I'll say this much, though, again, the Democrats, if they think they're going to play tricks, maybe I'm wrong. Joe Biden won the primary, but the, the, I think the time for tricks is very

close to an end. Oh, it's Elizabeth Warren. Let's listen to her and then we'll explain more. And since COVID-19 hit, they've taken one gut punch after another. And what is the COVID fallout done to our babies. Well, I'm here at the early childhood education center in Springfield, Massachusetts, which has been closed for months. Child care was already hard to find before the pandemic, and now parents are stuck. No idea when schools can safely reopen and even fewer child care options. The devastation is enormous. And the way I see it, big problems demand big solutions. Now, I love a good plan, and Joe Biden has some really good plans. Plans to bring back union jobs in manufacturing and create new union jobs in clean energy. Plans to increase

Social Security benefits, cancel billions in student loan debt, and make our bankruptcy laws work for families instead of the creditors who cheat them. These plans reflect a central truth. Our economic system has been rigged to give bailouts to billionaires and kick dirt in the face of everyone else. But we can build a thriving economy by investing in families and fixing what's broken. Joe's plan to build back better includes making the wealthy pay their fair share, holding corporations accountable, repairing racial inequities, and fighting corruption in Washington. Let me tell you about one of Joe's plans that's especially close to my heart, child care. As a little girl growing up in Oklahoma, what I wanted most in the world was to be a teacher.

I loved teaching. And when I had babies and was juggling my first big teaching job down in Texas, it was hard. But I could do hard. The thing that almost sank me, child care. One night, my aunt B called just to check in. And I thought I was fine. But then I just broke down and started to cry. I had tried holding it all together.

But without reliable childcare, working was nearly impossible. And when I told Aunt B, I was going to quit my job, I thought my heart would break. And then she said the words that changed my life. I can't get there tomorrow, but I'll come on Thursday. And she arrived with seven suitcases in a piece. named Buddy and stayed for 16 years. I get to be here tonight because of my Aunt Bee. I learned a fundamental truth.

Nobody makes it on their own. And yet, here we are. Two generations of working parents later, and if you have a baby and don't have an Aunt Bee, you're on your own. And here's why that is wrong. We build infrastructure like roads and bridges and communication systems.

systems so that people can work. That infrastructure helps us all because it keeps our economy going. It's time to recognize that child care is part of the basic infrastructure of this nation. It's infrastructure for families. Joe and Kamala will make high quality child care affordable for every family, make preschool universal, and raise the wages of every child care worker. Now, that's just one plan, but it gives you an idea of how we get this country working for everyone. Donald Trump's ignorance and incompetence have always been a danger to our country. COVID-19 was Trump's biggest test. He failed miserably. Today, America has the most COVID deaths in the world and an economic collapse. And both crises are falling hard.

artist on black and brown families. Millions out of work, millions more trapped in cycles of poverty, millions on the brink of losing their homes, millions of restaurants and stores hanging by a thread. This crisis is bad and it didn't have to be this way. This crisis is on Donald Trump and the Republicans who enable him. On November 3rd, we will hold them all accountable. So, whether you're planning to vote, wearing a mask, or vote by mail, please take out your phone right now and text vote to 30330.

We all need to be in the fight to get Joe and Kamala elected. And after November, we all need to stay in the fight to get big things done. We stay in this fight so that when our children and our grandchildren ask what we did during this dark chapter in our nation's history, we will be able to look them squarely in the eye and say we organized, we persisted, and we changed America. I guess that was more hard hitting than the average speaker, but maybe I just got used to it in the primaries. So that's a story she told a lot, the NB story. And you know, rare is it that, and I'm covering it and hearing that speech a number of times, that worked that story

with every audience, the AMP B moving in for 16 years story. So yeah, of course you can say that, Michael, because one of our members, C or J likely C wrote in, all right, all you hardboil cynics, I'm crying over Aunt B. Yeah, it had that effect. And all I was about to say is, of course Elizabeth Warren has an Ann B. Of course. She doesn't. Okay, let me ask you about Elizabeth Warren. Any chance is she gets Secretary, Treasury, or she's going to get totally shut out? I don't know that she wants Secretary of Treasury, though I think she'd be she'd love to take the job. A lot of it has to do with the Senate. Charlie Baker is a Republican governor in Massachusetts.

If the Senate is so tight that getting rid of Elizabeth Warren will change the Senate back to the Republicans, there's no way that Biden's going to give her Secretary of Treasury. So a lot of it has to go back to what the Senate. If the Democrats win with a little bit of a cushion, then they know they're going to win the special election that would come two years later for the rest of Warren's term, I think they would that he might think about it. The problem is that you also don't know what the dispositions in the Senate would be there and whether or not she would be approved. But if they have the Senate, then I would imagine she would be. Okay, I forgot to mention there's actually two parts of Nancy Pelosi's

speech that I liked. So let me credit where credit it is do as always. I love that she pointed out than 90 out of 105 women in the House are Democrats. See, that's what I'm telling you, sometimes facts are very powerful. Not everything has to be a fluffy emotional plea. And some things are good, and I get as emotional about and be as anyone. But facts are good too. And so, and that was a powerful one. He gives you a sense of, gee, I wonder which party's on the side of women and which

party isn't. It's pretty clear in the numbers. And I like the reference she had to Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall. And when you really lay it out like that, you know progressives and usually Democrats are the ones that fought to expand the circle of liberty, whether it was for women in Seneca Falls, whether it was for LGBT community in Stonewall or the civil rights movement in Selma. And that's very stark and very clear which side the parties are on. And that's why I actually find it really discouraging that 35% of this country knows that,

100% knows that, and goes, yeah, I'm on the opposite side of Seneca Falls, Stonewall, and so. Yeah, well, I was gonna make a joke, but I can't do it now. I was gonna save with all those S's, if if history had gone another way, it could have been Seneca Falls, Stonewall, Selma, and Santa Clarita. But that was a- I don't know what I would have done in Santa Clarita, that would have been that level. Jenks, a congressional race reference, you got to throw one in when you're doing D on suit

coverage, yeah. Yeah, of course. And man, that race cuts in a couple of different directions. So yeah, we could have gone see me. We didn't have to go Santa Clarita. We could have said that's true, we're going to see me too. So obviously I did not come close in that primary. So you can say, well, you know, L.M. Progressives didn't do well. First of all, don't put it on progressives. Put it on me. That was in hindsight, foolish to try to run that race in three and a half years, three and a half months. All right, well, let's go to Obama. Goodbye. It's not a normal time. So tonight, I want to talk as plainly as I can about. the stakes in this election. Because what we do, these next 76 days, will echo through generations to come. I'm in Philadelphia, where our Constitution was drafted and signed. It wasn't a perfect document. It allowed for the inhumanity of slavery and failed to guarantee

women, and even men who didn't own property, the right to participate in the political process. But embedded in this document was a North Star that would guide future generations, a system of representative government, a democracy, through which we could better realize our highest ideals. Through civil war and bitter struggles, we improved this Constitution to include the voices of those who once been left out. And gradually, we made this country. country more just and more equal and more free. The one constitutional office elected by all of the people is the presidency. So at a minimum, we should expect a president to feel a sense of responsibility for the safety

and welfare of all 330 million of us, regardless of what we look like, how we worship, who we love, how much money we have or who we voted for. But we should also expect a president to be the custodian of this democracy. We should expect that regardless of ego, ambition, or political beliefs, the president will preserve, protect, and defend the freedoms and ideals that so many Americans marched for, went to jail for, fought for, and died for. I have sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies.

I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously, that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some some reverence to the democracy that had been placed in his care. But he never did. For close to four years now, he has shown no interest in putting in the work. No interest in finding common ground. No interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends. No interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality.

show that he can use to get the attention he craves. Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't. And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone. While those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed Our proud reputation around the world

badly diminished And our democratic institutions threatened like never before Now I know that in times as polarized as these Most of you have already made up your mind But maybe You're still not sure which candidate you'll vote for

or whether you'll vote at all. Maybe you're tired of the direction we're headed, but you can't see a better path yet, or you just don't know enough about the person who wants to lead us there. So let me tell you about my friend, Joe Biden. Twelve years ago, when I began my search for a vice president, I didn't know I'd end up finding a brother. Joe and I come from different places, different generations, but what I quickly came to admire

about Joe Biden is his resilience, born of too much struggle, his empathy, born of too much grief. Joe is a man who learned early on to treat every person he meets with respect and dignity, living by the words his parents taught him. No one's better than you, Joe, but you're better than nobody. That empathy, that decency, the belief that everybody counts, that's who Joe is. When he talks with someone who's lost her job, Joe remembers the night his father sat him down to say that he'd lost his. when Joe listens to a parent who's trying to hold it all together right now

he does it as a single dad who took the train back to Wilmington each and every night so he could tuck his kids into bed when he meets with military families who've lost their hero he does it as a kindred spirit the parent of an American soldier somebody whose faith has endured the hardest loss there is.

For eight years, Joe was the last one in the room whenever I faced a big decision. He made me a better president, and he's got the character and the experience to make us a better country. And then my friend Kamala Harris, he's chosen an ideal partner, who is more than prepared for the job. someone who knows what it's like to overcome barriers and who's made a career fighting to help others live out their own American dream. Along with the experience needed to get things done, Joe and Kamala have concrete policies that will turn their vision of a better, fairer, stronger country into reality. They will get this pandemic under control, like Joe did when he helped me manage H1N1

and prevent an Ebola outbreak from reaching our shores. They'll expand health care to more Americans, like Joe and I did 10 years ago, when he helped craft the Affordable Care Act and nail down the votes to make it the law. They'll rescue the economy, like Joe helped me do after the Great Recession. I asked him to manage the Recovery Act, which jumped started the longest stretch of job growth in history. And he sees this moment now, not as a chance to get back to where we were, but to make long overdue changes so that our economy actually makes life a little easier for everybody. Whether it's the waitress trying to raise a kid on her own, or the shift worker always on the edge of getting laid off, or the student figuring out how to pay for next semester's classes. Joe and Kamala will restore our standing in the world.

And as we've learned from this pandemic, that matters. Joe knows the world and the world knows him. He knows that our true strength comes from setting an example that the world wants to follow. A nation that stands with democracy, not dictators. A nation that can inspire and mobilize others. to overcome threats like climate change and terrorism, poverty, and disease. But more than anything, what I know about Joe, what I know about Kamala, is that they actually care about every American and that they care deeply about this democracy.

They believe that in a democracy, The right to vote is sacred, and we should be making it easier for people to cast their ballots, not harder. They believe that no one, including the president, is above the law, and that no public official, including the president, should use their office to enrich themselves or their supporters. They understand that in this democracy, the commander-in-chief does not use the men and women of our military who are willing to risk everything to protect our nation as political props to deploy against peaceful protesters on our own soil. They understand that political opponents aren't un-American just because they disagree with you. A free press isn't the enemy, but the way we hold officials accountable. That our ability to work together to solve big problems like a pandemic depend on a fidelity to facts and science and logic

and not just making stuff up. None of this should be controversial. These shouldn't be Republican principles or Democratic principles. They are American principles. But at this moment, this president, and those who enable them, have shown they don't believe in these things. Tonight, I'm asking you to believe in Joe and Kamala's ability to lead this country out of these dark times and build it back better. But here's the thing. No single American can fix this country. alone. Not even a president. Democracy was never meant to be transactional. You give me your vote. I make everything better. It requires an active and informed citizenry. So I'm also asking you to

believe in your own ability, to embrace your own responsibility as citizens, to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure. Because that's what's at stake right now. our democracy. Look, I understand why a lot of Americans are down on government. The way the rules have been set up and abused in Congress make it easier for special interests to stop progress than to make progress. Believe me, I know it. I understand why a white factory worker who's seen his wages cut or his jobs shipped over, might feel like the government no longer looks out for him and why a black mom might feel like

it never looked out for her at all. I understand why a new immigrant might look around this country and wonder whether there's still a place for him here. Why a young person might look at politics right now. The circus of it all, the meanness and the lies and conspiracy theories and think, what is the point? Well, here's the point. This president and those in power, those who benefit from keeping things the way they are,

they are counting on your cynicism. They know they can't win you over with their policies. So they're hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote and to convince you that your vote does not matter. That is how they win. That is how they get to keep making decisions that affect your life and the lives of the people you love. That's how the economy will keep getting skewed to the wealthy and well connected.

Our health systems will let more people fall through the cracks. That's how a democracy withers until it's no democracy at all. And we cannot let that happen. Do not let them take away your power. Do not let them take away your democracy. Make a plan right now for how you are going to get involved and vote. Do it as early as you can and tell your family and friends how they can vote to. Do what Americans have done for over two centuries when faced with even tougher times

than this. All those quiet heroes who found the courage to keep marching, keep pushing in the face of hardship and injustice. Last month, we lost a giant of American democracy in John Lewis. And some years ago, I sat down with John. And a few remaining leaders of the early civil rights movement. One of them told me he'd never imagined he'd walk into the White House and see a president who looked like his grandson. And then he told me that he had looked it up. And it turned out that on the very day that I was born, he was marching into a jail cell,

and to end Jim Crow segregation in the South. What we do echoes through generations. Whatever our backgrounds, we are all the children of Americans who fought the good fight. Great grandparents working in fire traps and sweatshops without rights or representation. Farmers losing their dreams to dust. Irish and Italians and Asians and Latinos told Go back where you come from Jews and Catholics

Muslims and Sikhs made to feel suspect for the way they worshipped Black Americans chained and whipped And hanged Spit on We're trying to sit at lunch counters Beaten We're trying to vote.

If anyone had a right to believe that this democracy did not work and could not work, it was those Americans. Our ancestors, they were on the receiving end of a democracy that had fallen short all their lives. They knew how far the daily reality of America strayed from the mid. And yet, instead of giving up, they joined together. And they said, somehow, some way we are going to make this work. We are going to bring those words in our founding documents to life. I have seen that same spirit rising these past few years. folks of every age and background who packed city centers and airports and rural roads so that families wouldn't be separated

so that another classroom wouldn't get shot up so that our kids won't grow up on an uninhabitable planet Americans of all races joining together to declare in the face of injustice and brutality at the hands of the state that black lives matter no more but no less so that no child in this country feels the continuing sting of racism

to the young people who led us this summer, telling us we need to be better? In so many ways, you are this country's dreams fulfilled. Earlier generations had to be persuaded that everyone has equal worth. For you, it's a given, a conviction. And what I want you to know is that for all its messiness and frustrations, Your system of self-government can be harnessed to help you realize those convictions for all of us. You can give our democracy new meaning.

You can take it to a better place. You're the missing ingredient. The ones who will decide whether or not America, becomes the country that fully lives up to its creed. That work will continue long after this election, but any chance of success depends entirely on the outcome of this election. This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that's what it takes for them to win.

So we have to get busy building it up by pouring all our efforts into these 76 days and by voting like never before for Joe and Kamala and candidates up and down the ticket so that we leave no doubt about what this country that we love stands for today and for all our days to come. Stay safe, God bless. Okay, Kamala Harris is going to be next. She's going to come up very soon. We're going to discuss the Obama speech in its entirety after the Kamala Harris speech. Stay right here, we're to continue our coverage through 8 o'clock. And beyond, because of any does describe it, summarize it well in our member section.

I don't care what you think of Obama, this is an excellent speech. I think it's the best speech he's ever given at a convention and that includes 2004. Well, I don't know that I'd go that far. Okay, that's not hyperbole. I think that hit everything. But anyway, we'll talk about it later. Well, everybody's waiting for Benny Thompson's speech, so. Yeah, there's no question that President Obama knows how to give a speech.

And that was fantastic. I do have a couple of bows to pick because I'm me. We'll talk about that a little bit later. But I thought the beginning and the end were through the roof. And one thing, I mean, we have a second here, right, Chank? Or? Until we see Kamala Harris. Senator Harris comes out. But but, you know, so many people have been waiting for two things. Barack Obama to tear into Donald Trump. And many Democrats, many Biden supporters have been waiting for him to be a bullion about Joe Biden's candidacy to really give that full throat an endorsement, which, you know, he's given in an Obama-esque way. But he hasn't come out and talk.

talked about the Joe he knows and loves. He did both of those things tonight. And everybody, it's like a big exhale for people. You know, and that's, I think that, you know, Matt Fuller, who writes for the Huffington Post, he covers Congress for them. He said, on Twitter, he said that this is probably a speech that Obama's been writing for three, four years. I forget if he said three or four, but it doesn't matter. This is the speech that a lot of Democrats have been waiting for him to give. And so that's why at the convention, I think it's a really important speech anyway. Yeah, well, you know, part of it was, okay, they're doing the Kamala Harris video. So let's watch this in this entirety, including our speech. And then we'll come back and

analyze both. The poor kid who picked on me because my big sister would be there in a flash ready to have my back. Well, now we've got your back as you and Joe fight to protect our democracy. And there's no union more perfect than the one that brings us all to your kitchen table every Sunday night, stir fry, feta chicken, or spaghetti and meatball family dinners. And now that I'm a mom, you're showing my daughters and so many girls around the world who look like them what's possible and what it's like to move through the world as fierce, formidable, phenomenal women in their own unique way. I love you. I admire you. I am so proud of you.

And even though Mommy's not here to see her first daughter step into history, the entire nation will see in your strength, your integrity, your intelligence, and your optimism the values that she raised us with. We love you, Mamma. We're so proud of you, Auntie. You mean the world to us, Kamala. And we could not be more excited to share you with the world as the next, as the next vice president. Vice President of the United States. Joe Biden has selected Kamala Harris as his running mate. She is the first black woman, first South Asian woman to be named on the Democratic tickets. This is a historic pick.

Let's do. Someone who looks like us on a presidential ticket. That's crazy. Kamala Harris is us. She was born in Oakland, a daughter of immigrants, the daughter of Shangla. Big sister and protector. She is an HVCU grad. She is a woman of many firsts.

She's a hard worker, a really hard worker. She's brilliant, she's smart, she's tough, and she's got a big future. She's probably one of the best girl models. Kamala Harris is like a dreamt me. Senator Harris cares about people. There's no doubt about it. When she says for the people, it is in every out of who she is.

She's for us. She's for us. She fights for women's rights. She fights to end mass incarceration. She is a fearless advocate for the voiceless. The litmus test for America is how we are treating black women. Now, I'm talking about someone who can fight for black people, brown people, undocumented, people, LGBT people, disabled people, young people, old people, all of America.

It's about all of us knowing our power to each of us to lift people up, right? And to remind them that we see them and we hear them and that they matter. Are you going to be vice president of the United States? honor to be speaking with you tonight. That I am here tonight is a testament to the dedication of generations before me, women and men who believed so fiercely in the promise of equality, liberty, and justice for all. This week marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, and we celebrate the women who fought for that right. Yet so many of the black, women who helped secure that victory were still prohibited from voting long after its ratification.

But they were undeterred. Without fanfare or recognition, they organized and testified and rallied and marched and fought not just for their vote, but for a seat at the table. These women and the generations that followed worked to make democracy and opportunity real in the lives of all of us who followed. They paved the way for the trailblazing leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. And these women inspired us to pick up the torch and fight on. women like Mary Church Terrell, Mary Croyd Bethune, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Diane Nash, Constance Baker, Motley, and the great Shirley Chisholm. We're not often taught their stories, but as Americans, we all stand on their shoulders. And there's another woman whose name isn't known, whose story is.

isn't shared, another woman whose shoulders I stand on. And that's my mother, Shamala Gopalyn Harris. She came here from India at age 19 to pursue her dream of curing cancer. At the University of California, Berkeley, she met my father, Donald Harris, who had come from Jamaica to study economics. They fell in love in that most American way while marching together for justice in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. In the streets of Oakland and Berkeley, I got a strollers-eye view of people getting into what the great John Lewis called Good Trouble. When I was five, my parents split, and my mother raised us mostly on her own. Like so many mothers, she worked around the clock to make it work, packing lunches before we woke up and paying bills

after we went to bed, helping us with homework at the kitchen table and shuttling us to church for choir practice. She made it look easy, though it never was. My mother instilled in my sister Maya and me the values that would chart the course of our lives. She raised us to be proud, strong black women. And she raised us to know and be proud of our Indian heritage. She taught us to put family first, the family you're born into and the family you choose. Family is my husband, Doug, who I met on a blind date set up by my best friend. Family is our beautiful children, Cole and Ella, who call me Mamala. Family is my sister.

Family is my best friend, my nieces, and my godchildren. Family is my uncles, my aunts, and my chitties. Family is Mrs. Shelton, my second mother who lived two doors down and helped raise me. Family is my beloved alpha-capa-alpha, our divine nine, and my HBCU brothers and sisters. Family is the friends I turn to when my mother, the most important person in my life, passed away from cancer. And even as she taught us to keep our family at the center of our world, she also pushed us to see a world beyond ourselves. She taught us to be conscious and compassionate about the struggles of all people,

to believe public service is a noble cause, and the fight for justice is a shared responsibility. That led me to become a lawyer, a district attorney, attorney general, and a United States Senator. And at every step of the way, I've been guided by the words I spoke from the first time I stood in a courtroom. Kamala Harris for the people. I have fought for children and survivors of sexual assault. I fought against transnational criminal organizations. I took on the biggest banks and helped take down one of the biggest for-profit colleges. I know a predator when I see one. My mother taught me that service to others gives life purpose and meaning.

And oh, how I wish she were here tonight, but I know she's looking down on me from above. I keep thinking about that 25-year-old Indian woman, all of five feet tall, who gave birth to me at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California. On that day, she probably could have never imagined that I would be standing before you now and speaking these words. I accept your nomination for Vice President of the United States of America.

I do so committed to the values she taught. taught me to the word that teaches me to walk by faith and not by sight and to a vision passed on through generations of Americans, one that Joe Biden shares, a vision of our nation as a beloved community where all are welcome, no matter what we look like, no matter where we come from or who we love. A country where we may not agree on every detail, but we are united by the fundamental belief that every human being is of infinite worth, deserving of compassion, dignity, and respect. A country where we look out for one another, where we rise and fall as one, where we face our challenges and celebrate our triumphs together.

Today, that country feels distant. Donald Trump's failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods. If you're a parent struggling with your child's remote learning or you're a parent, you're You're a teacher struggling on the other side of that screen. You know what we're doing right now is not working. And we are a nation that is grieving. Grieving the loss of life, the loss of jobs, the loss of opportunities, the loss of normalcy, and yes, the loss of certainty.

And while this virus touches us all, we've got to be honest, it is not an equal opportunity offender. Black, Latino, and indigenous people are suffering and dying disproportionately. And this is not a coincidence. It is the effect of structural racism, of inequities in education and technology, health care, and housing, job security, and transportation. the injustice in reproductive and maternal health care, in the excessive use of force by police, and in our broader criminal justice system. This virus, it has no eyes,

and yet it knows exactly how we see each other and how we treat each other. And let's be clear, There is no vaccine for racism. We've got to do the work for George Floyd, for Brianna Taylor, for the lives of too many others to name, for our children, and for all of us. We've got to do the work to fulfill that promise of equal justice under law. law. Because here's the thing, none of us are free until all of us are free. So we're at

an inflection point. The constant chaos leaves us a drift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone. It's a lot. And here's the thing. We can do better and deserve so much more. We must elect a president who will bring something different, something better, and do the important work. A president who will bring all of us together, black, white, Latino, Asian, indigenous to achieve the future we collectively want. We must elect Joe Biden. And I will tell you, I knew Joe as vice president. I knew Joe on the campaign trail. And I first got to know Joe as the father of my friend. So Joe's son, Bo and I served as attorneys general of our states, Delaware, and California. During the Great Recession,

He and I spoke on the phone nearly every day, working together to win back billions of dollars for homeowners from the big banks that foreclosed on people's homes. And Bo and I, we would talk about his family, how as a single father, Joe would spend four hours every day riding the train back and forth from Wilmington to Washington. Bo and Hunter got to have breakfast every morning with their dad. They went to sleep every night with the sound of his voice reading bedtime stories. And while they endured an unspeakable loss, those two little boys always knew that they were deeply, unconditionally loved. And what also moved me about Joe is the work that he did as he was going back and forth. This is the leader who wrote the Violence Against

Women Act and enacted the assault weapons ban, who as vice president implemented the Recovery Act, which brought our country back from the Great Recessions. He championed the Affordable Care Act protecting millions of Americans with preexisting conditions, who spent decades promoting a values and interest around the world. Joe, he believes we stand with our allies and stand up to our adversaries. Right now, we have a president who turns our tragedies into political weapons. Joe will be a president who turns our challenges into purpose. Joe will bring us together to build an economy that doesn't leave anyone behind,

where a good paying job is the floor, not the ceiling. Joe will bring us together to end this pandemic and make sure that we are prepared for the next one. Joe will bring us together to squarely face and dismantle racial injustice, furthering the work of generations. Joe and I believe that we can build that beloved community, one that is strong and decent, just and kind, one in which we can all see ourselves. That's the vision that our parents and grandparents fought for, the vision that made my own life possible, the vision that makes the American promise for all its complexities and imperfections, a promise worth fighting for. So make no mistake, the road ahead is not easy. We may stumble. We may fall short. short. But I pledge to you that we will act boldly and deal with our challenges honestly. We will

speak truths and we will act with the same faith in you that we ask you to place in us. We believe that our country, all of us, will stand together for a better future. And we already are. We see it in the doctors, the nurses, the home health care workers and frontline workers who are risking their lives to save people they've never met. We see it in the teachers and truck drivers, the factory workers and farmers, the postal workers and poll workers, all putting their own safety on the line to help us get through this pandemic. And we see it in so many of you who are working, not just to get us through our current crisis, but to somewhere better. There's something happening all across our country. It's not about Joe or me. It's about you.

And it's about us. People of all ages and colors and creeds who are, yes, taken to the streets, and also persuading our family members, rallying our friends, organizing our neighbors, and getting out the vote. And we have shown that when we vote, we expand access to health care and expand access to the ballot box and ensure that more working families can make a decent living. And I'm so inspired by a new generation. You, you are pushing us to realize the ideals of our nation,

pushing us to live the values we share, decency and fairness, justice, and love. You are patriots who remind us that to love our country is to fight for the ideals of our country. In this election, we have a chance to change the course of history. We're all in this fight.

You, me, and Joe, together. What an awesome responsibility. What an awesome privilege. So let's fight with conviction. Let's fight with hope. Let's fight with confidence in ourselves and a commitment to each other. To the America we know is possible. The America we love. And years from now, This moment will have passed, and our children and our grandchildren will look in our eyes, and they're going to ask us, where were you when the stakes were so high? They will ask us, what was it like? And we will tell them. We will tell them, not just how we felt, we will tell them what? We will tell them what?

We did. Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America. Okay. That concludes the third night of the Democratic National Convention. Michael and I will break it down. Now we're going to do at least three things here.

At 8.30, we're going to have to switch over. to members only. We'll see how much of it we can get to. And members do get more coverage, including on important nights like this. TYT.com slash join to become a member. And at the $4.99 level, let's just, I think it's about a cup of coffee at Starbucks per month. Excuse me, why would you go to Starbucks when you could have too strong coffee? You're working against yourself, Jane. Yeah, there you go. Okay. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, too strong coffee.com slash TYT, two strong coffee.com slash TYT. Anyway, but seriously for at the $5 level on YouTube, you get the post games as well. And you support the show and you make coverage like this possible. So on YouTube is so easy. Click the join button below and you'll get there. Okay, so the three things we are going to do for sure. And then we'll see if we can get to the conversation about what we think is going to happen in 2024, are analyzing Obama's speech, Kamala Harris's speech, and

then obviously summer of the night. So this is what traditionally happens right now, let's keep it on the screen where the first family comes and joins the second family at the end of the vice president's speech. There's no need to put up the volume because they're not saying anything, and it's just a lot of waving to an empty room. So I'm glad they're showing the Zoom here. So I'll go, oh, there they are, they're waving back and they're applauding it. So it's so hard though.

It's so hard with no one in the room. And I just, I wouldn't do the way. But anyways, so every speech you see, you should add like some extra credit to for being able to deliver it in this, you know, insipid atmosphere, right? And they didn't choose it, my God, if you're Kamala Harris, and you've been waiting for this your whole life. I know it's a tiny, tiny thing, especially for compared to what others have suffered in this catastrophe. But she's kind of robbed of that moment where she says, I accept your nomination for vice president, and the crowd goes nuts, right? There's just no crowd to go nuts, and it is what it is.

Okay, so let's start. All right, let's start with Kamala Harris's speech. First thing that jumps to mind, Michael, is she was heading up there. She must have thought, who thought it was a good idea for me to follow Barack Obama? Right. Oh my God, Obama knocks it out of the park with a grand slam home run. The game's already over, the crowds of the parking line driving home. And they're like, oh, right, right, Carla Harris for VP, right, we got to listen to that.

And so in a sense it was unfair to Kamala Harris because not only is Obama normally a great speech giver, but he killed it tonight. So it was nearly impossible to follow that act. And so for a while, especially when the primaries first began, there was hope in some circles that Kamala Harris was the next Barack Obama. Unfortunately we saw it tonight, that doesn't appear to be the case, at least in terms of giving a speech. And so there was nothing wrong with this speech, it was just standard fair, in my opinion.

And so she gave her bio, that's important because a lot of people, even including me, don't know some of the details. So I know that her mom's from India or dad's from Jamaica. Did I know all the details of that? No, was some of that endearing? Of course, is it great to hear an immigrant story? Well, if you believe in America, it is. And she has an excellent immigrant story and a story of someone who succeeded.

And in the midst of that, I thought, you know, I'm probably a little too tough on these, what I would consider a standard politician. And the reason I say that is because, look, we just showed that progressives could not win, at least until 2020 on the presidential level, I mean, 24 apparently on the presidential level. And we had a great candidate and one who had a lot of name recognition, he still didn't win. So when you look at the Kamala Harris of the world, she rose up in this system. So she had to master this system to get to where she is. So when I see some of the standard language without the follow through, and I know that she,

you know, the donations that she takes, et cetera, I'm almost burdened with that knowledge. I wish I could just openly root for her without knowing all that stuff and knowing her track record. But at the same time, understand that if she was an amazing progressive throughout, she wouldn't be here. She just wouldn't. She wouldn't have made it at this point in the year 2020 to the VP slot. So there was a great line in there that she kind of alluded to, but then dropped. The line was when she said, I know a predator when I see one.

So she didn't say Trump, and she was in a different context. But I think everybody knew what she was talking about. But that leads to my biggest disappointment about the speech. She's got to introduce herself, and there was nothing wrong with that. That was fine. The rest of the state of speech was like rah-rah America and rah-rah Biden, but she just couldn't do it anywhere near as good as Obama, and we just saw that. So that's tough for her, right?

But the vice president is supposed to be an attack dog, and she didn't lay a glove on Trump. And I know she wants to establish herself, and this is one of her. biggest moments to introduce their self to the country. But somebody's got to attack Trump. And there's little bits and pieces here, and whenever we see it, and we'll talk about the beginning of Obama's speech in a little bit, and again, don't miss it. If you miss any of our coverage, t.t.com slash joining, you can get all of it. But, and Warren did it in pieces and Pelosi did it in pieces, but there's got to be a fire

breather who just lays out the entire case against Trump. Now, I understand that could take all four days of Democratic convention, but at least have someone dedicate a giant portion of their speech to unbelievable tragedies, crimes, and all the different things that he's done. So far, they have not, they barely touched on it. And I thought this was a moment where it could have happened, but unfortunately it didn't. And so the last thing for me for now on Kamaharis is she did what all the other speakers are doing. She just kept telling you, you got to vote, you got to vote. They keep saying it. But what would be better is telling us why we should, giving us a reason to vote. Through your policies, through your actions,

say, if you put us in office, we're definitely going to do this and we're going to make your life so much better. Spend a minute on the paid family leave. Spend two minutes. side. So pink family leave, Michael and I talked earlier in the show about is a layup. But it's an important layup and talk about how you get to finally spend time with your kids without worrying about losing your job or how you're going to pay for anything when you, if you do it and your company doesn't pay for it. But we're going to get it to you. You're going to be able to deliver your baby into this world with some peace of mind that the Republicans have robbed you of for all these years. Give me some reason why I should be excited

to get out there and vote for you rather than just telling me to vote over and over again. All right, Michael, what do you think? Well, so we'll start with your speech, Shank. I think, you know, you're spot on in terms of the way I read Harris's speech. First of all, She came out there and spoke after Obama. She had to know that for days that that was going to happen. Unfortunately, that's a tough spot to be in. He was, I thought, extraordinary tonight. But I also wouldn't have put her in the setting in which she was in.

I think that was a strange thing to be on the stage and have just like a couple of people with the with those, whatever they're called lollipops with the state names on them. I just didn't think that worked. But again, uphill, I give everybody the benefit to the doubt with these speeches and how they're handling these conventions or this one at least so far. One thing that it may have helped was the fact that she had to go after Obama, the fact that there were so few people that could be there other than members of staff and the press and family and all of that.

Because it would have been tough to come into a really buzzing hall and then have to give a speech after Barack Obama. Maybe that was different. I also, and I'm cynical about this stuff, I don't think anything at the conventions matters at all. Like I know we're doing this programming. I want people to watch it because and so what I'm saying goes against that. And it's fun to analyze and it's interesting and you have wish lists and whatnot. None of it matters. I think the only speech that mattered at this convention was going to be Bernie Sanders speech. I still think his will end up being the only one that mattered because I think it has practical import where the others really don't. It would be great to see Joe Biden be, you know, vital and

exciting and into it. I don't expect to see that, especially without a crowd. So I don't have huge expectations. So when you talk about also about policy, and it is the tragedy of this of running against Donald Trump and the way that the Democratic primaries shook out this year, it's not really a trend. I guess tragedy is not the road. But Joe Biden won because Democratic voters, and you'll take umbrage with this, and I take umbrage as I say it, weren't as interested in policy. I think that we were, even if we think that they were, Joe Biden's nomination proves that maybe they weren't. And I think that because Donald Trump, this is the referendum election, I don't think, you know, putting a lot of policy into every single speech is as

important. Harris, it would have been nice. I think I have the same wish list that you had there. talk about a couple of progressive things would have been nice. And I think when she pivoted away from her biography, then it got it kind of droned on a little bit. It's tough, it's tough to do. It's tough to do in this environment and none of it matters. Okay, last couple things I call my IRS's speech. First of all, I was thinking about Biden tomorrow too. And Obama's a tough act to follow for Biden too. And Biden usually feeds off a crowd. Like when He does that, the one thing that I absolutely love about Biden is when people are cheering. No, no, no, wait, wait, guys, wait, guys, this isn't about politics.

No, I'm serious, this isn't about politics. When he does that, that's my favorite thing in the world, because I love politics. No, well, I'm not going to be on tomorrow night, but I wish we had an over-under game on a couple of Biden words tomorrow. How many, you know, the folks number, the folks, this is not hyperbole number, I mean, it's going to be more scripted and how many references to members of his family. I don't know who's doing it with you tomorrow, John or Anna, but it's it would be a fun game to play nonetheless. Well, first of all, it's Anna and please come back tomorrow night and check it out right here

as well. But if we did a drinking game based on family members, oh, we would get annihilated. So don't die. Be careful out there, right? Maybe just one bet on the over or under. You set a number And then, you know, okay, on Dr. Jill Biden alone, we'd get hammered. Yeah, but back to Kamala. I want to give a comment from one of our members. Shorty 140 wrote in. You know, Kamala is not my pick, but in all the politics, I forgot what a huge moment this is for us as a country. A woman of color is our vice president. So that's true. And that's why she had to do the bio. And that's why the bio is important. And that's why it's important for you to know her. And that is a great moment. And no matter

what we think of Kamala Harris's policies or strategy or tactics. But at the end of the day, I have to, as Michael and I talked through here, to say that the speech by the end did feel a little empty. And it's our job to analyze it. And that's my honest analysis. All right, so now let's go to Barack Obama. Barack Obama spoke tonight and killed it, just crushed it. And it reminded you of why Barack Obama was Barack Obama and why he became president twice. Michael earlier said, thought it was the best speech he's given at a convention. We can debate that in a minute. The audacity of host speech was one of the best speeches I've ever heard in my life. Now, as usual, I will have a couple bones to speak. But first,

I want to talk about some of the great stuff in there. In the beginning, he started by actually going after Trump. Oh, thank God, finally, finally. He did it in his own elegant way, but he was forceful. So he wasn't doing it the way that I do it, a moron, idiot, incompetent, he's not going to say those things. And I got facts to back it up in regards to Trump. But he said, look, he didn't put in the work. And he said, I thought he would rise to the weight of the office and the importance of the office. But he can't. Wow, wow. But like that's, I love the way he put him down like that. But Jake, when he said he didn't put in the work, I think that it was even more biting.

He said he showed no interest in putting in the work, which is even more biting. Absolutely. And then he talked about the attention that Donald Trump craves. And so all these things are absolutely true. And yes, maybe we might have talked about it a thousand or literally 10,000 times on the young Turks. But the country trust, though, Obama. And so for them to see an immensely popular president, as Obama was, deliver those stinging words, it was a slap across the face to Donald Trump that we've all been longing for. So I was thrilled to get it from Obama. And you know that it's driving Trump crazy as we speak. And he will say the most hideous things tomorrow.

Well, he's already tweeting. And he's tweeting that he can't believe. know, in all caps over how long it took Obama to endorse Biden, sort of deflecting any of the insults that were thrown his way by Obama tonight. But you know, it's all, it's just more of the same. Yeah, so, and then one last insult that he did that I thought landed really well. He said, look, you can't solve these problems by just making stuff up. And that's just that it's the core of what's wrong with Trump. He just makes stuff up, he doesn't do his work, doesn't care to do the work, and all

he does is crave attention. So he nailed it. So now that's not why I thought it was a great speech. That was the beginning, which was very good. The minute he started speaking though, the way that he speaks, what he says, I was like, oh, right, oh, but now let me get to a critique, and then I'll tell you why I actually thought it was great. In the middle, I was like, that's the smooth sound of the status quo. So he talks a good game, but when he talks about an active citizen rate, but I know too much.

I know that when he became president, the people he said, oh, I need you to push me. The minute we started pushing, he hated it. And he put it down and he did not activate the young or the, or progressives, or anyone else, or is even it more importantly, his own fancies, his own voters. He never activated them. And he never joined that active citizenry. And in fact, I, you know, this was a great speech, and I think it's a speech he should have been giving for four years, but he just doesn't do it.

I know he has a different view of being an ex-president, but really, we're still following etiquette in the Trump era. No, you're protecting your own reputation. And so in some of the cases, when he talked about the young and how they have to be more active and more and voting more, and they have to push the next government, the minute we start pushing the next government, if it's the Biden administration, one of the people we're going to have to get through is Barack Obama. That's just a fact, he's not on our side, and on that, he never has been.

And by the way, when progressives were fighting like hell, he organized to get Joe Biden elected. And that's fair, that was his vice president. I get it, he did what he did. So those are my critiques. Now, why was it great? I love that he did it by the Constitution. And he actually hit the same thing Bernie Sanders did in his speech, which is you guys aren't getting it. Our democracy itself is at stake. And he's absolutely right. So when Kaley Macanagan, Trump's press secretary today was asked. Trump is saying he might not leave office if he loses. She said, well, we'll have to see what happens in the aftermath. No, no, we don't see what happens in the aftermath. If you lose an election, you leave. It's just, it's not hyperbole,

guys, it's not hyperbole. He will destroy this democracy in a second if he can to stay in office, whether it's this time or God help us if he wins a second term. He's never going to leave. And so, and then, but the way that he framed it. So when he talked about how there was, he was talking to a civil rights leader and that leader called him later and said, when you were being born, I did the math, I was being marched off into a jail cell during the civil rights era. That was so powerful. When he talked about how those civil rights leaders were killed, killed and African Americans in this country have been brutalized and whipped and hung. But even in the worst and most dire situations, when they had every right to say this democracy

doesn't work and will never work for us, they still believed and they still fought. And if they can do that, we can do this. And that's what makes Obama great when he's in moments like this. And now I get to go, correct? Yes. No, I, first of all, I totally agree on the Constitution thing. That this has been about the Constitution and how it's been run roughshod over now for a few years by the Trump administration. First of all he was in Philadelphia, and all I could think of, how is he not watching the Flyers and Canadians playoff game?

That's another story for another time. The point that is really interesting, and it speaks to who Obama is, is that everything that people would love about it and Democrats would love about it, going after Donald Trump, finally in that way, endorsing Joe Biden, finally in that way, speaks to what people like about Barack Obama, is that he waited to do it, that he was deliberate in doing it. And that is also one of the very frustrating things about Barack Obama. It was frustrating about his presidency. And it was frustrating, Jenk, you talked about the call to activity and activism. And he didn't really do that. He spoke about it, but he didn't do it. He was far too timid as a president to the likings of myself and many others. That said, I think, you know, obviously it's apples and orange to what we're living through right now. And there were great, great strides in the Obama administration and just his presidency said so much about the country. But I do

think that when you hear him and you see him tearing up about civil rights. I mean, I don't know that he actually teared up, but he, damn it, he looked like he was getting emotional there. I saw that side of Barack Obama and what Democrats and what Americans miss about that in a leader anyway. And I think it was wildly effective because he's somebody who does speak to so many people. And this also, if it's a blueprint for what he's going to be doing now for the next several months until election day, then the Democrats have got to be really happy with what they heard tonight. Yeah, I hope he does continue to do it. All right, last word goes to our members. Opinionated in California totally disagreed. Opinionated says, Mr. Hope and Change

that gave neither hope nor change to the peons who voted for him twice. This man is disgusting, in my opinion. He speaks with four ton eloquently. Okay, so super harsh, okay, and his, And Obama's record is does not often, does not always match his rhetoric. I don't know that I would have gotten that harsh. But California, on the other hand, both young Turks members says, I lost it listening to Obama, especially about those who were beaten, whipped, hanged for eating at a lunch counter. All my pent up despair came out in tears. I'm so tired fighting on, but I'm exhausted.

And I'll tell you this, California, hang in there, brother, hang in there because I know it's tough. But as Martin Luther King said in his speech, and I think it comes from the Bible originally, but wrong forever on the throne, truth forever on the scaffold. But that scaffold sways the future. And it is swaying that future, and we're seeing it right now. And yes, Biden won this time around in the primary. Let's hope to God he wins the election. But I don't think that the establishment has long left in them. They won this really, really, really important pivotal fight, but they're running out of steam. And everyday progressives get stronger and stronger and stronger.

And yes, in these super dark times led by Donald Trump, it seems so hopeless. But remember, he barely won and lost by 3 million votes overall. He's the last gasp of the angry white man. And we're gonna get rid of those right wingers and then hopefully transition. to progressive. So hang in there, everybody. And finally on Obama, he almost did it. He almost did a line from Gladiator. He said, what we do now echoes in future generations. I was like, oh, you almost had it. Echoes in eternity, an eternity. All right, you guys make this possible t.yt.com slash join and become a member. t.yt.com slash go so that we can do programming

like this for you guys, including the RNSE, next week. Now, speaking in which, we're going to go to members only right now. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.