What A Day - How The DNC Kept "Uncommitted" Out Of The Party's Big Tent

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

At last week’s Democratic National Convention, organizers tried to put unity on display by featuring speakers with a range of ideological viewpoints who support Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for president. But one major voice was missing. DNC leaders denied the request of the Uncommitted Movement, the Pro-Palestinian anti-war in Gaza coalition, to have a Palestinian American speak on stage at the convention. One of the people who the group suggested was Georgia State Rep. Ruwa Romman, the state’s first Palestinian American elected to public office. She joins us on the show to talk about the message the DNC’s decision sends to voters opposed to U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza.And in headlines: The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah traded fire with Israel on Sunday in the biggest flare-up of violence between the two in recent months, Republican Vice Presidential Nominee J.D. Vance says Donald Trump would veto a federal abortion ban if elected as president, and RFK Jr. threw his support behind Trump after suspending his independent bid for president. Show Notes:Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Monday, August 26th. I'm Traeval Anderson. And I'm Josie Duffy Rice. And this is What A Day, the show that wishes J.D. Vance would just stop talking. He was on Meet the Press this weekend and said he doesn't regret making the childless cat lady comment. He just wishes y'all had a better sense of humor.

Yeah, he said a lot of Democrats have willfully misinterpreted what he was saying, which is totally how I would suggest to get votes. Tell people they're not funny enough to get you. On today's show, we talked to Palestinian Georgia State Representative Rua Roman, who was denied the opportunity to speak at last week's Democratic National Convention. But first, we're going to shake things up a bit and start the show with some headlines. Headlines.

On Sunday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, quote, this is not the end of the story. After the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah traded fire with Israel over the weekend, marking the biggest flare up in violence between the two in recent months. Hezbollah claims to have hit an Israeli military intelligence site near Tel Aviv with a barrage of rockets. Israel refuted that claim, saying that it had launched successful quote-unquote preemptive attacks that destroyed some of Hezbollah's rocket launchers. U.S. defense officials helped Israel by tracking Hezbollah's strikes,

but they say they didn't deploy any weapons. Hezbollah's attack is in response to Israel's killing of one of its military commanders last month. Sunday's violence heightened fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East. Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, signaled that the group could launch further attacks on Israel in the coming days. And more from that Meet the Press interview with Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance. On Sunday, he told NBC's Kristen Welker

that Donald Trump would not support a federal law banning abortion if he were elected president again. Vance also claimed Trump would veto

such legislation if it were to land on his desk. I think it would be very clear he would not support it. But would he veto it? Yeah, I mean,

if you're not supporting it as the president of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it. So he would veto a federal abortion ban? I think it'd be very clear he would not support it. I mean, he said that explicitly. Yeah, I mean, if you're not supporting it as the president of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it. So he would veto a federal abortion ban? I think he would. He said that explicitly that he would. And again, Lindsay- I don't think he's ever said explicitly he would. On Friday, Trump also promised on Truth Social that his administration would, quote, be great for women and their reproductive rights. All the evidence points to the contrary, though, given that Trump also likes to brag that the Supreme Court justices he appointed during his first term helped overturn

Roe v. Wade. They just lying in our faces, Josie. Should we trust this guy? Maybe not. Maybe not. Maybe not. Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. finally suspended his campaign on Friday. Take a listen to what he told reporters. I cannot in good conscience ask my staff and volunteers to keep working their long hours or ask my donors to keep giving when I cannot honestly tell them that I have a real path to the White House. Baby, you ain't had a path in a minute, but when did you get said good conscience? When did we get a good conscience, baby? Kennedy also endorsed former President Donald Trump for the White House on Friday,

and he told Fox News on Sunday that he would be actively campaigning for the former president, saying, quote, I want to make America healthy again, and so does President Trump. Even though polling suggests that Kennedy's endorsement likely won't have a huge impact on the race, we still have to give him credit for several memorable moments during this election cycle between debating himself when he didn't qualify for the actual presidential debate and claiming that doctors found a dead worm in his brain. Also remember when he put the bear in the park? Oh, yes.

That one too. It's really just been hit after hit. Hit after hit. Depending on what you consider a hit to be. And finally, two American astronauts who've been stuck in space for months will be extending their stay into next year. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore arrived at the International Space Station in early June. They were only supposed to be there

for eight days as part of a test flight for Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, but technical problems with the vessel had left their return date in limbo. And on Saturday, NASA announced that Williams and Wilmore would not be returning on Starliner and would instead return on a SpaceX vehicle in February. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the decision was, quote, the result of our commitment to safety. Oh. Look, I go somewhere for eight days. And I'm there for nine months.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Would you panic? Not sure I signed up for that would you panic yes treyville anderson would panic but i think suny williams and butch wilmore they are patriots of the highest order they trained for this you know what i mean yeah you and i are not going to be in space to begin that's a good point like of course we're gonna panic because we're not space people not space people okay i'm barely earth people okay now you

want me to be space like i get on a plane and i'm like listen you want me to jet into the atmosphere and those are the headlines last week's democratic national convention was an opportunity for the party to unify behind presidential nominee vice president kamala harris and the enthusiasm on display during the convention was overwhelming. But while the DNC made time on the main stage for Harris supporters from a wide range of backgrounds and ideological viewpoints, there was one notable omission. DNC leaders denied the request of the Uncommitted Movement to have a Palestinian American speak on stage at the convention. The Uncommitted Movement is a coalition of delegates representing the more than half a million people who voted uncommitted or the equivalent on their primary ballots to object to the Biden administration's support for Israel's war on Gaza.

One of the people who the Uncommitted Movement suggested as a speaker at the DNC was Georgia State Representative Rua Roman, the first Palestinian American elected to public office in Georgia. Here she is reading part of the speech that she wanted to make on stage. But in this pain, I've witnessed something profound, a beautiful multi-faith, multi-racial, and multi-generational coalition rising from despair within our Democratic Party. For 320 days, we've stood together demanding to enforce our laws on friend and foe alike to reach a ceasefire, end the killing of Palestinians, free all the Israeli and Palestinian hostages, and to begin the difficult work of building a path to collective peace and safety. That's why we are

here, members of this Democratic Party committed to equal rights and safety. That's why we are here, members of this democratic party committed to equal rights and dignity for all. What we do here echoes around the world. For more on the DNC's decision and the message that it sends to voters opposed to the U.S.'s support for Israel's war in Gaza, I spoke with Representative Roman, and she started by telling me more

about what she had hoped to say during her DNC speech. The speech itself was focused on a few things. One, I really wanted to share my personal story to give people an idea of who are Palestinians, what does our history look like, those kinds of things. I wanted to be able to talk about how, and not just talk about, but also show how Trump is not an acceptable choice. He uses me and my identity as a slur show how Trump is not an acceptable choice he uses me and my identity as a slur and last but not least about how even though federally our party has not fully caught up with the base that there is this beautiful multi-faith multi-religious multi-generational coalition that has emerged and how that coalition can absolutely create the kind of world where we

do prioritize funding schools instead of war. We do prioritize feeding the hungry. We do prioritize restoring access to abortions. And, you know, it was a little bit of unity and a little bit of what could the future look like and obviously support for Vice President Harris. Yeah. So it seems like a pretty reasonable speech. Yeah. It was super watered down. Like we took out Yeah, anything that could be controversial. This was really meant to be a good faith gesture and unite the party. Right. And you said that before, right? Like you said that you were kind of giving a relatively sanitized speech to make it more palatable. What are some of the things that you would have said in a non sanitized speech? I mean, you know, this is like politics. You could say the same thing five different ways.

What's happening in Gaza is awful. It's a massacre. But the reality of the situation is that we have had international court systems that say that there was a threat of genocide as early as January if the following conditions are not met. And now that those conditions have not been met, it's pretty safe to assume that is what's going on. But I also recognize that legally, our country hasn't come to that conclusion just yet. And, you know, I probably would have gone a little bit deeper into sort of how my family went through was ethnic cleansing, the violence that they had experienced. But again, there was never an intention to quote unquote, bring the vibes down. It really was trying to sort of capture the promise of this moment. What message is the DNC

sending by refusing to allow you or any other Palestinian speaker time to speak? Again, just like this was meant to be a symbolic gesture, the symbolism is that there is no room for Palestinians or their allies in the party. The reality is that if you could not get yourself to give any singular Palestinian a place on that stage, it's just such an awful, awful, awful symbolic thing to say and do. But also what people don't realize is that Wednesday night when we saw the parents of an Israeli hostage on the stage, we actually got really excited. We thought in that moment, the party was going to take this very seriously, that this was a moment to really highlight both the devastation, but again, that we could really lead on this in a way that protects everybody and cares for everybody. So I was with one of the uncommitted folks when they got the

call. And I remember sort of this excitement of, all right, like, this is it. We're about to get this call. And the call ended up being a final no. They've been in negotiations. They were told that as long as the DNC doesn't say no, this is a good thing. Keep sending us names. Keep working with us. Let's keep going. Let's keep going. And so when we got the call, I think it was about an hour-ish after the hostage parents had gone up there. And I remembered, like, the excitement. And then suddenly that parents had gone up there. And I remembered like the excitement and then suddenly that excitement was no longer there. We will be back with more of my conversation with Georgia State Representative Rua Roman. And if you like our show, make sure to subscribe and

share it with your friends. We'll be back after some ads. And we are back with the rest of my conversation with Georgia State Representative Rua Roman. I asked her about what the DNC missed out on by denying Palestinian Americans a space at the convention. Considering that the vast majority of Democrats oppose Israel's handling of the war in Gaza. We got a no without a single explanation. To this day, and I've asked, I've gone back and I've asked people over and over and over and over again, and nobody will tell me why there was not a single speaker on that stage. And I want to be clear, I was the Hail Mary. Me and Abdel Nasser were like the final push because we could at least deal with sort of the public scrutiny. We were already kind of in the public eye and so we could handle it unlike some of the other suggested speakers who

were going to speak because they just had family in Gaza. They were you know your typical average everyday person who hadn't really been in the spotlight and was kind of scared about being in the spotlight this way. But what was really fascinating to me was that they would not have a single one. And to your point, this was a gift. We offered a gift. And not only was it just any generic gift, I'm an elected Palestinian in a swing state. I've had people texting me saying that if I had seen you on that stage,

I could have at least put aside all of my disappointment at the lack of policy that has changed, let alone commitments to any policy changes, and would have been willing to come around, right? They said I would be willing to come around. Instead, it reinforced for so many people who I've been working so hard to win over and who had a rekindled sense of hope when Vice President Harris stepped up to become the nominee, trying to kindle that hope, and instead it just ended up going completely haywire. So what was your reaction to the statement that Vice President Harris made about Gaza and Israel during her DNC speech? I mean, again, she did not say anything different during her speech compared to even as early as George Bush the reality of the situation is that the ask for us originally was not another bomb meaning an arms

embargo we understand the word arms embargo is a very loaded term we understand that for most people don't even know what that means so then the question becomes why could she not say something like I commit to enforcing our laws or you know, humanitarian laws on friend and foe alike? I mean, what steps do you think that the Harris-Walls campaign needs to take in order to earn your support in the coming months? In the support of other Palestinian Americans who, you know, were disappointed by the speech and by Palestinians not getting a platform at the DNC. And I just want to say other people, you know, anybody. Yeah, 100%. And I love that you're clarifying that because again, this has not been just Arabs, just Palestinians, just Muslims that care about this. There's a multi-faith, multi-generational, multi-racial coalition that emerged that really genuinely,

like I said, saved my life. And those are the people who made up the majority of uncommitted voters. And to win them back, they want a ceasefire. But the reason that, quote unquote, calling for a ceasefire is not enough is because if you keep sending the bombs to somebody, and they keep dropping those bombs on innocent Palestinians preventing a ceasefire, then it doesn't matter how many times you say the word ceasefire. It's just not going to work. You have to apply pressure. You have to apply, you know, consequences to people breaking our laws. Because again, I mean, we talk a lot about how we are a leader on the world stage. And, you know, we've got one of the mightiest militaries in the world. And you're telling me that we cannot get a country to do what we are asking them to do. How in the world is this a dynamic that we exist in? It genuinely baffles my mind

that we are begging and groveling this fascist man to please stop killing innocent people and simultaneously just handing him more bombs. It genuinely doesn't make any sense to me. It's incomprehensible. And so that's what people are asking for. They're asking for her to commit to enforcing our laws, to applying this pressure, to doing the right thing,

because saying the word ceasefire just isn't enough. That was my conversation with Georgia State Representative Rua Roman. Travelle, as Representative Roman mentioned, we are only a couple months away from the election. And Democrats really, truly, truly, truly have their work cut out for them with uncommitted voters right now. Absolutely. They can't take anyone's vote for granted at this point. Absolutely not. One more thing before we go. The police tell us they are here to protect us. But what if their original purpose was something else altogether?

In Wondery, Cricket Media, and Push Black's newest limited series, Empire City, the untold origin story of the NYPD, Peabody Award-winning host Shinjurai Kumonika takes you deep into the hidden history of the NYPD, from its origins rooted in slavery to rival police gangs battling across the city to the everyday people who resisted every step of the NYPD, from its origins rooted in slavery, to rival police gangs battling across the city, to the everyday people who resisted every step of the way. As the debate around policing rages on, Empire City uncovers the truths about where it all began. Listen to the trailer out now wherever you get your podcasts and follow Empire City on your favorite podcast platform to hear full episodes starting September 9th. That is all for today.

If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, send some positive vibes to the International Space Station, and tell your friends to listen. And if you are into reading and not just Representative Roman's entire speech, like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter, so check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash subscribe.'m josie duffy rice i'm trey bell anderson and can't y'all take a joke apparently not apparently not or maybe the messenger isn't that good at telling jokes look if nobody likes your joke maybe you're just not not funny, beloved. And that's okay, too.

Everybody's not a comedian. That's okay. Know your strengths. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our associate producer is Raven Yamamoto. Our producer is Michelle Aloy. We had production help today from Ethan Oberman, Greg Walillyard and Kshaka.