From Dems, a Reminder: January 6 Was Horrible
In a night that will be remembered for Tim Walz and Oprah, it was a video montage about that dark day 3.5 years ago that may end up moving voters.
Shove all us grouchy Shapiro-or-bust types in a locker: Tim Walz’s speech last night was the speech of the convention so far—and with the single best moment of the convention so far:
The bar has officially been raised for crowd-reaction shots of Ella Emhoff tonight. Happy Thursday.
J6 Night at the DNC
—Andrew Egger
If you’ve ever been to the Grand Canyon, you know it’s a sight almost too large to drink in with your eyes. If you’ve ever been back, you know the feeling of being gobsmacked all over again: Your memory, it turns out, wasn’t powerful enough to retain the experience.
That was roughly the sensation I had last night, watching the January 6th video package streamed to the assembled crowd during night three of the Democratic National Convention. (If you missed it last night, you can see it here.)
I’m pretty familiar with the events of January 6th—I was there in the crowd and have frequently covered the riot’s aftermath. But even for me, hearing the hoots of the violent mob and the dismayed radio chatter of the overwhelmed police, seeing the lawmakers scramble for safety, and hearing Trump, in voiceover, talking about the “love in the air” that day and promising pardons to rioters—it all felt like a brand new punch in the face.
Delivering that punch in the face was a major theme of last night’s programming. And while it may not be remembered against the backdrop of Oprah reclaiming and redefining the concept of “freedom” for the crowd or Tim Walz outlining a calmer, more caring Americana, it could have just as much political potency.
That’s because it served as the most telling reminder of the “back” that Kamala Harris demands we not go to.
In addition to giving the stage over to Bennie Thompson, the congressman who led the January 6th Committee, a significant amount of programming time was allotted to anti-Trump Republican speakers. Olivia Troye, a former Trump national security official, warned that “being inside Trump’s White House was terrifying. But what keeps me up at night is what’ll happen if he gets back in there.”
And Geoff Duncan, who was Georgia’s lieutenant governor when Trump tried to steal that state’s vote in 2020, denounced a Trumpified GOP that was no longer “civil or conservative. It’s chaotic and crazy.”
“You don’t have to agree with every policy position of Kamala Harris—I don’t,” he said. “If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you’re not a Democrat, you’re a patriot.”
Walz drove the point home during his night-capping speech. Trump’s second-term agenda, he said, is weird, wrong, and above all, dangerous. “It’s not just me saying so,” he went on. “It’s Trump’s own people. They were with him for four years. They’re warning us that the next four years would be much, much worse.”
Politics is a “what have you done for me lately” game, and Team Harris has an unenviable task in the sprint to November: The gripes voters have with the Biden administration are the gripes they’re feeling now, while the bad feelings of the Trump era have, to a large degree, receded into a gauzily-remembered past.
But there are ways to break through that perverse nostalgia. The impossible-to-ignore, shocking-all-over-again sights, sounds, and smells of January 6th, and the few remaining Republicans with the nerve to speak up and sound the alarm: Trump would do it again, if you gave him the chance. These are potent arguments, and it was heartening to see Democrats deploy them from their largest stage last night.
Trump Plans to Claim Harris Cheated
—A.B. Stoddard
Donald Trump is watching the same polls we are—and the Democratic National Convention as well. He’s bracing for a polling boost for Vice President Harris after the convention, and knows if her momentum continues, she will likely beat him on November 5. Potentially by a lot.
That’s why yesterday in North Carolina, a state he is now worried about losing, he revealed his plans in clear language. He’s not interested in persuading more voters. He’s interested in laying the groundwork to claim that the election in November was stolen.
“Our primary focus is not to get out the vote. It’s to make sure they don’t cheat. Because we have all the votes we need,” he said, adding: “They are going to cheat like hell to win the election because they have no bounds.”
The key words here: “We have all the votes we need.” Nobody has voted yet, but Trump has already deemed himself the winner. In August.
Trump has insisted on prioritizing “election integrity” efforts over a vote-mobilizing ground game in swing states. The Republican National Committee has promised 100,000 volunteers will police the vote. But that isn’t likely to stop a Harris win. So should Trump lose, some Republicans in swing states will refuse to certify the election.
Democrats are sober-minded about this threat. The operation that fought back against Trump’s election subversion four years ago never shut down. In fact, it’s now ten times larger.
It’ll have to be—the threat has grown too. Republicans and allied groups have filed “dozens of lawsuits” in 25 states, according to the New York Times. Bob Bauer, a top Democratic election lawyer, wrote in the Atlantic this week that the RNC has asked the Supreme Court to issue an emergency ruling in furtherance of their goal to “allow the state of Arizonas to impose a ‘proof of citizenship’ requirement as a condition of a person’s right to vote for president.” Bauer wrote that even if SCOTUS disagrees, the suit “risks achieving some success in sowing doubt about the integrity of elections.”
House Republicans are working to create the same pretext—that illegal immigrants will throw the election.
After the happy party in the Windy City ends tonight, Democrats must work to amplify this threat. In the video about January 6th that Andrew referenced above, we heard Trump’s chilling words: “We will never concede. You don’t concede when there is theft involved.”
If Harris wins, we will hear them again. She may not want to talk about it, but her party must.
In his remarks, Rep. Thompson warned that Trump is “plotting again” and that “his campaign proclaims that elections won’t end until the moment of inauguration.” Thompson urged the crowd to “choose democracy, not political violence” by voting for Harris.
That’s the perfect line. All Democrats should start to use it.
Quick Hits
THE OLDSTERS SIGN OFF: Joe Biden isn’t the only Democrat on the cusp of leaving the political limelight. Last night’s programming featured a number of other old-guard Democrats nearing the end of their service too: Both Bill Clinton and Nancy Pelosi’s speeches could conceivably have been their DNC convention swan songs.
Clinton acknowledged his age during his remarks, which were slow, somewhat loose and rambling, but had those in the room playing close attention. “The only personal vanity I want to assert,” he said of turning 78 just days before, “is that I’m still younger than Donald Trump.”
THE ANTISEMITISM EXPERT HAS LOGGED ON: Republicans have spent the last few weeks concern trolling Kamala Harris for selecting Tim Walz over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate, suggesting that snubbing Shapiro was a sop to antisemites in the Democratic coalition. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is, uh, off doing his own thing, posting this to Truth Social last night:
The highly overrated Jewish Governor of the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, made a really bad and poorly delivered speech talking about freedom and fighting for Comrade Kamala Harris for President, yet she hates Israel and will do nothing but make its journey through the complexities of survival as difficult as possible, hoping in the end that it will fail. Judge only by her actions! Yet Shapiro, for strictly political reasons, refused to acknowledge that I am the best friend that Israel, and the Jewish people, ever had. I have done more for Israel than any President, and frankly, I have done more for Israel than any person, and it’s not even close. Shapiro has done nothing for Israel, and never will. Comrade Kamala Harris, the Radical Left Marxist who stole the nomination from Crooked Joe, will do even less. Israel is in BIG trouble!
Cheap Shots
Maybe it’s because I recently became a father, but I can’t help but notice the contrast between the families of the candidates for the two major political parties. Look, families are complicated. I don’t assume to know anything about family dynamics - especially of those I don’t know IRL.
HOWEVER….
It does appear that the Democrats have nominated ordinary people to do extraordinary jobs with loving families who just want what’s best for them. Again, I’ll refer to the caveat above BUT…just watch Ashley Biden with her dad on night 1, or Doug’s family on night 2.
And then we have the Walz’s. Tim’s son, Gus, exemplified what I’m talking about last night.
“That’s my dad!”
Damn right it is, Gus. You should be proud. People are going to mock you online and share clips of you crying tears of joy but know that those people don’t matter. At all.
I confess to being someone who had questioned the legitimacy of the Democratic “deep bench” argument. Not anymore. The array of talent on display this week has been more than reassuring, and it stands in stark contrast to what the GOP rolls out in its ongoing war of anger and negativity that assaults the American eyes and ears with every new campaign rally and media appearance. The list is long and necessarily incomplete, but several people have stood out in particular to me. We’ve already discussed how Josh Shapiro has a future. But Wes Moore does not get enough attention. He has both the substance and the style to get the job done. Pete Buttigieg impresses me more and more every time he speaks, as a natural leader and someone who can cut through GOP deflections and untruths with a particularly sharp knife. And of course there is Tim Walz, who reminds us of who we are no less than who we want to be. (If only every son and daughter appeared so loving and positively impacted as the Walz children demonstrated toward their father. Perhaps the GOP will use the footage as some sort of warped weapon as they continue to double down against childless cat ladies.) As noted, the list could go on and on.
It is a pleasant problem to have, looking to see who can play what role in the future. If indeed Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi, and of course Joe Biden, are moving gracefully toward the exit door of their political careers, at least they are seeing that the party and the movement are in very capable hands. If the team can stay unified, they could be dominant for years to come, especially if the GOP continues its current pathway of trying to scare us into conversion and convince us that we all are going to a fiery date with Hell and soon if we do not unflinchingly embrace their plans for America and the world. The contrast between the two parties cannot be greater right now, and only one seems to have the best interests of the American public at heart. Even before tonight there have been so many enduring memories of this convention, as Team D proves that it has risen to the magnitude of the moment. It will be interesting to see what kind of polling bump they get out of this, as America takes stock of what they’ve got. If the worst thing the GOP can show from it is the film of Chuck Schumer teaching us how not to dance, the Democrats appear to be in pretty good shape.