What A Day - License To Jill

Episode Date: August 19, 2020

Last night was the second night of the DNC, featuring beautiful shots of delegates across our gorgeous country, as well as speeches from AOC, activist Ady Barkan, and Dr. Jill Biden. We talk to Crooked’s own Jon Favreau about speech writing for the first digital DNC. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said yesterday that he would suspend cost-cutting changes at the USPS, but it’s unclear whether the postal service will reverse changes made this year that are leading to delays. House Democrats still plan to vote on legislation that would outlaw changes to the USPS and provide emergency funding. And in headlines: the president of Mali announces his resignation, Uber and Lyft may suspend operations in California, and Trump pardons Susan B. Anthony.

It's Wednesday, August 19th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Raznick, and this is What A Day, where we are saluting our friends in the Calamari comeback state, Rhode Island. That's right. It's kind of like Backstreet Boys. Like, when they were back, I hadn't known that they had left, but it's good to know they're back. It's true. Either way, I want it that way. On today's show, a conversation with friend of the WOD, Jon Favreau, about speech writing for the convention, then some headlines. But first, the latest, starting with the Postal Service. Yesterday, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said that he would suspend cost-cutting changes at the USPS to, quote, avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail. That means, according to his statement, that no mail processing facilities will be closed, overtime will be allowed, and mailboxes will remain where they are. It is unclear, though, if the Postal Service will reverse the changes that have already been made this year, which are leading to delays currently. Gideon,

he was clearly feeling some intense pressure, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, in part because even before you get into this discussion on possible ramifications for vote by mail, there are issues like prescriptions and other essentials anecdotally that come through the mail and have been delayed. So this is definitely the beginning, but we're likely to find out more in the coming days and weeks about this whole process. And in the past week, specifically, there's been a lot of scrutiny on DeJoy. I mean, he's now being called before the Senate on Friday to testify in addition to that hearing scheduled for Monday in the House. Plus, you have impending lawsuits from at least 20 state attorneys general that seek to stop service changes at USPS. And then House Democrats are still planning to go ahead with

a vote on Saturday on legislation that would outlaw operational changes until at least the start of next year. And that bill is reportedly going to include $25 billion for USPS as well. Right. The bill and the lawsuits are seen as a way to ensure that DeJoy sticks to his word. And you saw Democrats like Senator Elizabeth Warren come out yesterday saying that more needs to be done to protect the mail beyond the statement from DeJoy. Yeah, that's right. They really want to make sure that, you know, it's not just empty words. And specifically with those potential lawsuits from the states, they are arguing that the leadership of the Postal Service broke the law by making changes without getting an OK from the Postal Regulatory Commission. And separately, they're

saying that the changes could impact how they actually run elections, which is something that is up to the state. So this is definitely a story we're going to continue to track. But now let's move on to night two of the Democratic National Convention. How do you make a broken family whole? The same way you make a nation whole. With love and understanding. And with small acts of kindness, with bravery, with unwavering faith. You show up for each other in big ways and small ones again and again. It's what so many of

you are doing right now for your loved ones, for complete strangers, for your communities. That was Dr. Jill Biden, former second lady. She was the final speaker of the night and was really moving in the way she talked about how she met Joe and the tragic deaths of his first wife, daughter, and more recently, their son, Beau. Plus how that makes Joe right for this moment that the country is facing now. Yeah. And salute from one runner to another. She says she runs every day as part of this package. I think that's something that, you know, keeps her head screwed on straight. It seems like it. There you go. Well, any other highlights from the night? Yeah. So one other that stuck out to me and a lot of us was Adi Barkin, a health care activist with ALS who has been fighting for Medicare for all and a truly great American. He spoke during a

segment of the night that was focused on health care. Since my shocking diagnosis, I have traveled the country meeting countless patients like me, demanding more of our representatives and our democracy. Today, we are witnessing the tragic consequences of our failing health care system. In the midst of a pandemic, nearly a hundred million Americans do not have sufficient health insurance. And even good insurance does not cover essential needs like long-term care. Our loved ones are dying in unsafe nursing homes, our nurses are overwhelmed and unprotected, and our essential workers are treated as dispensable. We live in the richest country in history, and yet we do not guarantee this most basic human right. That was really powerful stuff. I mean, healthcare is one of the most important,

if not the most important issue this year. And so it was really powerful to hear from him. Yeah, definitely. And one other thing that he said during part of the speech was that he wants to keep pushing any possible Biden administration to get a Medicare for all bill on his desk. That's something that Biden doesn't currently back at the moment. The last bit of news from the night is that we can stop saying presumptive nominee Joe Biden. He was formally nominated last night as the Democratic presidential candidate. And I like the process of going around, you know, doing the roll call through all the states. Great backgrounds of various states that I am not allowed to visit during this pandemic. But you know, it was cool

to see. Yeah, I thought it was great. I mean, it's just like weird to see people outside at all, since I never leave my house. So it was like, Oh, you could do that. Yeah, well, all right, there are two more nights to go. And tonight's going to be a really big one with speeches from vice presidential nominee, Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and former President Barack Obama. Ahead of all that, we talked to Jon Favreau, the co-host of Pod Save America and Barack Obama's head speechwriter from 2005 to 2013, about what it's like to put these speeches together and how it may be working a little differently this year. Jon, hello. Thank you so much for joining us. How has your Couchvention been going?

It's been fantastic. Nothing I'd rather do than just watch hours of convention coverage from my couch every night. It was what I've always dreamed of for the 2020 convention. Thousand percent, same. Yeah, I think this is how everybody had it mapped out personally. But for this year's virtual convention, what is the difference, if at all, in strategy in a writing process here when you know that you're not playing to a crowd? These are designed a lot more like State of the Union responses are in format. So I guess what goes into that thinking? So I think it's tougher to deliver a speech that's not to a crowd.

It's often tougher to listen to a speech that doesn't have crowd reaction. But I think it's probably more liberating to write a speech that doesn't have a bunch of applause lines. Like, I've always sort of been allergic to writing applause lines. Barack Obama was always allergic to that as well. We'd write speeches and reporters would say, like, what's the memorable line? Like, what's the quotable line from the speech? And we didn't really write that way. And when you don't write so that you're trying to get artificial applause from a speech, it's more authentic.

And so you can write like you're having a conversation with someone sitting on their couch. And so it can be more personal. You can tell more of a story. I mean, I think we heard that on Monday night, especially from Michelle Obama. It was, it was a quieter speech. And I think the speeches that work this week will be speeches that sort of have that quieter feel to them. And the speeches that I will say, like, I agree, Michelle Obama's speech felt like the kind of thing that I'm like, oh, I can't look away or ignore it or be like, why are they clapping? Like, I actually have to hear every word and just be like, yes, actually. Okay. So Senator Kamala Harris is speaking later tonight. And I'm just curious, what does she need to do in her speech? And similarly, what does Joe Biden need to do in his speech tomorrow night?

So I think, though, the one thing that both of them don't have to do as much of, in my opinion, is like remind people why Donald Trump is horrible. Like, I think that a majority of Americans, probably even in the swing states, have made up their minds that Donald Trump hasn't been a great president. But there is a portion of voters who have not decided to affirmatively vote for Joe Biden. Right. So Kamala Harris, there's still a big portion of the country that doesn't know who she is. So I think she needs to introduce herself. I think she can credential Joe Biden, basically vouch for him, talk about his character and also talk about why he'd make a great president. And then I think she will probably present the vision that she and Joe Biden have for the country and sort of fill in the details of that because we haven't heard that as much this week. And I think that's what Biden needs to do as well. I think when you look at focus groups and polling research and all this, like people still don't know what Biden would do. They don't know what his policies are.

They don't know what his plans are. Some of them don't really know him beyond the fact that he served as Barack Obama's vice president and that he's old. That's what some people know of him. So filling out the picture of what a Biden presidency, a Biden-Harris administration would look like is probably the main objective or should be the main objective for both Harris and Biden. Yeah, and you're sort of driving at this next question and that answer. But I've been wondering, like this time specifically, ultimately, like who broadly these speeches end up being for, right? Like, there's a very specific audience of people that sort of come to them either, like you said, knowing the candidates or wanting to learn more about the candidates or wanting to just sort of analyze how people are doing sort of in the way that we are. But do you think that broadly these conventions are sort of meant to bring in new people or is it really just to say Democratic voters get excited and here is why to be excited? Yeah, I mean, they're not for us. They're not for they're not for Democratic voters or people

who've already made up their minds. Right. They're not for like a lot of people on Twitter. They are for, I think, basically two groups of voters. Voters who are still deciding between Trump and Biden and voters who are deciding, or people who are deciding between voting and not voting. And so that's hard because, first of all, those people aren't paying close attention to politics or as close attention as we all do. And so that's why you see probably the best speeches in the primetime hour, in the last hour, the 10 to 11 hour.

That's why we saw sort of Bernie and Michelle on the first night. That's why we'll see Kamala and Obama on Wednesday night and Biden on Thursday night. They're hoping that people who don't usually pay much attention to politics tune in to the 10 o'clock hour on broadcast networks, NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox. And those people who don't pay that much attention will see something they like, will hear something from Joe Biden or Kamala Harris or Michelle or Barack or any of them that will either convince them that they should vote or convince them that Trump is wrong and Biden's the right one to, the right guy for the country. Yeah, for sure. I mean, so, you know, we've spoken about how you are a prolific speechwriter, but I have to know, like, how typical is it for speakers to kind of talk to each other about what they're writing so that there's no duplicates, they kind of cover all the bases. I think you do have a story about 2004 that might be relevant from our research.

But, you know. I was in a Carrie campaign in 2004. I was right out of college. I was like 22. And there's basically a speechwriter's room at the convention, back when we held convention in physical locations. And so we were in Boston, and there was a speechwriter's room backstage. And our job was to make sure that all of the speeches were coordinated, that people didn't take each other's lines, that all the speeches were on message.

So that sort of happens, right? If you're going to give a speech, you have to send it to the campaign, and they just basically look at it. They don't tell you what to say, but they want to, they want to know what you're saying. So I get a call from John Kerry's chief speechwriter who's with him, who's working on his speech. And he's like, Hey, have you seen this speech from this, you know, state Senator Barack Obama, who's giving the keynote address? And I said, yeah, I read it. It's going to be a fantastic speech. And he said, all right, John Kerry wants to use a line in Barack Obama's speech. And they both got the same line and John Kerry wants to use it. And I was like, why are you telling me? And he's like, you have to go tell Barack Obama to take that line out of his speech. And so I was like, okay, great. Thank you. So I walked down the hall and Barack Obama is practicing his convention speech for the

very first time on a prompter. David Axelrod is there. Robert Gibbs is there, who was the press secretary at the time. Gibbs had been my boss on the Kerry campaign before he quit to go work for Obama. So I knew him. I go up to Gibbs and I'm like, hey, Kerry needs to use that line in Obama's speech. Would you mind go telling him to take it out? And Gibbs looks at me and he's like, I'm not telling him to take the line out. You go tell him uh obama notices the commotion at this point and he's like can i help you and i was like hi i'm john favreau i work for the carry campaign and there seems to have been a mix-up there's a lining the senator's speech that's in your speech and and obama comes up to me within like an inch of my face looks down at me and he's he, are you telling me that I have to take out my favorite line in the convention speech that I wrote?

And at that point, I think I lost consciousness for a few seconds. And David Axelrod, who was his chief strategist, walks up to me, introduces himself, and he's like, we'll take care of this, don't worry. Son, let's walk outside, We'll rewrite the line together. So I go outside. We rewrote the line. It was the line at the end of the famous red state, blue state riff that was supposed to end.

We are the United States. Everyone pledging allegiance to the red, white, and blue. Kerry wanted the red, white, and blue. So he took that. We had to rewrite the line for Obama. And I remember after it happened thinking, I heard the speech, I heard Obama's speech, and it was, of course, incredible.

And I thought it was a shame that I would never see him again or talk to him again because he hated me. And then a year later when he won and John Kerry lost and I interviewed with Obama for a speech writing job, Obama did not remember that I was the one who came up to him and took the line out. And then he hired me. And then a year later we were sitting in the Senate office and everyone was reminiscing. And he's like, do you remember the convention speech?

And do you remember that little shit who came in and asked me to take out the line? He was talking to Gibbs and I was like, that was me. He's like, I would have never hired you if I knew that was you. Oh my God. Yeah, that's how I met Barack Obama. I'm curious also, I guess this might be

like an unanswerable question, but so that setting that you're describing, how does that happen this year? Like, do we have a sense of does anybody know what I mean, people have to know like a little bit of, you know, what they're going to say. But does anybody have that sort of ability to be like, hey, actually, can you email that over airdrop that over to me so I can check it again? From what I know, there's still a group of speechwriters who are running the process. It's like a lot of the same people that have been doing it for a long time. And, you know, they still ask to see the speeches. And I think a lot of the politicians that go in the first hour, like they have to get all of their speeches looked at.

And everything's very scripted. I still think, you know, Barack Obama is going to go tonight and Kamala Harris, like they're not asking for their speeches to check and make sure that there's no stolen lines and all that. So the big, big speakers don't get checked like that. But I think the Biden campaign and the speechwriters who are part of the convention are still, you know, going through that process. Right. Which is a fun one. Well, John, thank you so much for chatting with us. I hope your couch is as comfortable as my couch, where we'll both be watching separately

the convention. But yeah, we'll see you on Group Thread. I'll see you on Group Thread. Can't wait. If you want to watch the convention with us and John and the rest of the Crooked crew, we're streaming it at crooked.com slash convention at 6 p.m. Pacific and 9 p.m. Eastern tonight. Plus, tomorrow, the host of Pods of America will be doing a special live pre-show

that you really don't want to miss. Find it all on crooked.com slash convention. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. to do just that. All of this follows months of escalating protests where tens of thousands of people took to the streets to demand his resignation. The country has been struggling with handling the pandemic, an economic crisis and the growing threat of extremist terrorism. And in recent weeks, soldiers began to lead the unrest, establishing a base near the Capitol and arresting the prime minister and other top officials. The UN and other West African leaders have since condemned the uprising, calling for the release of all the officials. The country is also facing major sanctions from neighboring countries. A three-year

Senate investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election officially came to an end yesterday. The Senate committee's final 996-page report concludes that the Russian government did disrupt the election in order to help Trump become president, but it does not say that his campaign participated in a coordinated conspiracy with the Russians. The report is particularly harsh on Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. It goes further than the Mueller report in suggesting that Manafort may have worked directly with a Russian intelligence officer to hack and leak Democratic email accounts, which helped uncover negative news stories about Democrats that Trump was able to use to his advantage on the campaign trail. Republicans in the White House say the bipartisan report proves there

was no collusion, while Democrats say that it does show collusion. So who you gonna believe? Some California users of the Uber app got a push alert yesterday, which said that service could be suspended because of a legal ruling. If you read that alert, blacked out, and then woke up at an elected official's door screaming that they leave Uber alone, you might have been playing right into Uber's hands. As we said before, a judge ruled last week that Uber and Lyft have to classify their drivers as employees by this Thursday to abide by California's new AB5 law. Both companies say if they can't delay that ruling, they might need to shut down until November when California will vote on reversing AB5. Uber and Lyft are probably

hoping for a big public outcry from fans, but this comes at a time when ridership is down at least 60% from last year, you know, back when taking bottled water from a stranger wasn't the stuff of absolute honest-to-God nightmares. Reportedly, both Uber and Lyft are considering a franchise model in California which would involve them licensing their brands to fleet operators instead of working with drivers directly, and might offer another way around paying benefits. Who knows how this plays out, but I think I know how it ends with all of my friends asking me to pick them up at the airport again as if it's not a massive favor. I just think you should do it. You know, you got to be there for your friends. All right. Well, Trump pardoned fearsome criminal Susan B.

Anthony yesterday. The women's suffrage leader was arrested in 1872 after voting in New York. She considered this an act of political resistance. but now that Trump has retroactively made it legal, sadly what she did was simply normal. Trump used the pardon to mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. While announcing it, he also took the opportunity to take some quick shots at mail-in voting, saying, quote, universal is going to be a disaster. They'll have to do it again, and nobody wants that. Nobody except perhaps Susan B. Anthony,

who, as we know, would never turn down an opportunity for voting. Trump's last pardon was of his friend and former campaign advisor, Roger Stone, back in July. Stone also fought for the right to participate in elections, but mostly on behalf of hostile foreign governments.

Yeah, there's some similarities there. And those are the headlines. That is all for today. If you like this show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, pardon us 150 years from now, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just threatening push alerts from rideshare apps like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe.

I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And never bet against a calamari comeback. You just can't do it. They always come back. Whenever they leave, they're always turning right back around those frisky calamari. is John Milstein and our senior producer is Katie Long. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.