Hi, I'm Mollie John Fast and this is Fast Politics, where we discussed the top political headlines with some of today's best minds.
And we are live from the DNC again with an absolutely insane lineup of people who will tell you such interesting things about what's going on in America today. Why, Senator Brian Schotz tells us his interesting take about what Kamala and Tim Walls mean for a new Democratic Party. Then we'll talk to former Trump White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham about why she spoke at the DNC against
President Trump. Next, President of the Association of Flight Attendants CWAAFL CIO Sarah Nelson tells us about the democrats embrace of labor unions. Then Peter Segel, the host of NPR's Weightweight Don't Tell Me, talks about Tim Walls being a Midwestern dad and the game changer that comes with it. Then human rights campaigns Kelly Robinson talks to us about protecting our most vulnerable fellow citizens. Finally, actor Mandy Patinkins tells us why he's at the DNC and why Dems
need to win. But first we have inside elections. Jacob Rubashkin to talk to us about what he's seeing on the floor at the DNC.
Welcome back to Fast Politics, my friend, I think of you as a numbers guy.
I'm sorry to tell you I do, Jacob Robashkan.
Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure.
So Jacob, you rite for inside elections.
You rank all of the map the Congress and the Senate who can win through polls, through polling. What I want first you're going to talk about is the part of the Democratic National Convention that people don't talk about. So a lot of what happens here in the morning and into the afternoon because the speeches don't start till about six, is that people go to these briefings that are held by super PACs and they tell you lots of stuff and they talk and it's pretty interesting.
Sometimes it's actually quite boring.
But tell me briefings you've gone to and what you've heard about them, what sort of stood out to you.
Yeah, So every morning, like you said, there are a whole bunch of events that carried through to the early afternoon. And you know, there are a lot of different stakeholders here. This is the super Bowl, it's the Olympics, it's this is the biggest moment in politics every four years, and so everyone's trying to get their message out. And I've been to a number of different events. A couple that come to mind the founders of Future Forward Pack, which
is the big Biden's super pack. They're going to spend or excuse me, Harris super packets have only been a couple of weeks, but I still get tripped up. They're going to spend two hundred and fifty million dollars on
Harris's behalf over the next three months. They did a very rare public appearance at a Cook Political Report event and the IOP and you know what they said, and it was interesting because it lined up with another group called Navigator that also did a polling briefing and Emily's List polling briefing that I attended is basically that this is still an incredibly close election. Everything is still in the margin of era, especially in those crucial swing states.
And there's really the game.
Yeah. And it's a real contrast because the energy here is so incredible. Democrats are fired up. They are clearly so happy with their candidate and how things have worked out and the momentum that she's brought to the table. But I think what these outside groups are trying to do is temper that a little bit and hammer home that this is not this is not a done deal. It is still very possible for Trump to win this election. What Harris has done is give Democrats a fighting chance.
Biden was really struggling. She has pulled this election back into fighting chance territory. And so I think the outside groups have been very careful to make sure that while the energy keeps going, it doesn't turn into overconfidences as it can and has, you know, not so long in the past.
So what weird stuff are you seeing? That's pretty interesting?
Well, one of the things that I find striking, and you know, today on Thursday, the final day, there's a whole lineup of Senate candidates who are speaking at the convention. You know, people like Reuben Diego running for Senate in Arizona, Alyssa Slotkin in Michigan, even Colin Alread running for Senate against Ted Cruz in Texas all have speaking slots tonight. This is really something that I wouldn't have expected a month ago when this was still going to be the
Biden convention. I mean, all of these candidates when they were making their case for the path to victory. It was all about how much they were going to outrun Biden.
Biden was a wait around their next and the name of the game was how many additional voters can we get to come over to our side in the Senate race, if not the presidential I don't think that they would have been speaking here at a Biden convention, But with Harris at the top of the ticket, I think down ballot Democrats are much more comfortable affiliating themselves with her, aligning themselves with her, and taking advantage of the opportunity
of the spotlight at this convention and hoping to translate that into success on election Day.
So one of the things that has been a complaint I've heard is that this election has been too long.
This election, not this election. This convention has been too long.
The speeches, that doing six hours of speeches is making everyone crazy.
Tonight.
It sounds like these are all people who really need to be featured. We definitely saw some people I'm thinking of like the governor of New York right where that like we probably didn't necessarily need. Is the problem here that they're just not saying no to anyone discuss There.
Are a lot of big personalities here. Everyone who is anyone in democratic politics is attending this convention, and they all want an opportunity to make their voices heard. Look, I think that conventions have always been kind of a slog. If you're listening at home.
Then you are tired. You see franky, we are a day for we are fucking tired.
Well, well it's.
It's so the perception is so different because if you're just getting two or three hours in primetime, you really don't feel the full scope of the day, not just those morning briefings in then the afternoon speeches, and it really does go on for a very long time. There are a lot of people who want to talk and get to talk. And look, I think that you know, I've never heard anyone say, oh I wish that that that that politician spoke for longer, and I wish that speech.
I wish we just got another five minutes of that speaker. That would have really made it. Look Tim Walls, last night, fifteen minutestes only fifteen minutes.
Wait, so we had an hour of someone who hasn't been president in a decade, and fifteen minutes.
Of fifteen minutes. Our friends at sea Spanish for listeners.
I'm hitting myself in the head.
Here with.
Our friends that see spend crunch the numbers. Tim Walls's VP acceptance speech was the shortest one since at least I think they went back to nineteen eighty eight to Geraldine Ferraro and Dan Quail, so they had all of those convention speeches by length. Tim Walls was the shortest. He spoke for twenty minutes, less than jd Vance. Jd Vance went for thirty five ti Tim Walls went for fifteen.
And look, I think that the response to his speech shows that you don't need to speak for thirty five minutes, an hour, an hour and fifteen like some of these other candidates on both sides of the aisle. This is a bipartisan issue. But yeah, absolutely, I mean, speakers are running long, applause is running long and adds up speakers.
This is our new nonpartisan issue. It stops speaking for so long at conventions.
I think you would find a lot of supporters, a lot of people would sign that petition if you got that out there.
Could you run for office just now?
Discus on a convention platform?
Yeah? Uh, what talk to me.
So the thing I keep saying, I wrote about this before the convention started.
I believe that I was really right.
One of the many annoying things I do is I then talk about how I was right about things. Jesse is nodding furiously. Let the record show Jesse is not incuriously. But I often like to talk about how I was write about something I was right that I feel like this is like joy with underpinnings of intense anxiety.
Well, it's the Democratic National Convention, it wouldn't It wouldn't be Democrats without anxiety. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. There is there is a tremendous amount of exuberance, amount of energy, but there is you know, undercurrent of worry.
Right.
I think any any sort of notion that Trump was unelectable was dispelled should have been dispelled in in twenty sixteen. And look that, I think twenty sixteen still looms very large in the minds of anyone involved in democratic politics. So absolutely, any sort of joy, any sort of exuberance, is going to be tempered by that anxiety. And I think that it's it's you know, the speakers have clearly been trying to drive that home that this isn't a done deal. That you know, go talk to your neighbors,
your undecided friends. That's a note that Obama hit, that Bill hit that you know, Tim Walls is talking about everyone is I think, at least on stage cognizant of the fact that this is still a very losable election for Democrats.
There is a I think that's really true. We just were ragging on the speeches, but there were a lot of really good speeches too. Can you talk about some of the speeches where you were like, oh, wow, that's really good.
So I was on the floor for both. Michelle Amberock on Tuesday.
Night controversial take that the two best orators and the Democratic Party were.
The best speeches.
Yes, continue, So but let's talk about how great to look, as I thinians in American life ever are.
I mean, she's not a politican.
She's she is not a politician, which is good news for Republicans because I think she'd be a very good one. She brought the house down. I you know, I would argue she was probably the got the best response of any speaker so far. You know, I think candidly, it's tough to get up there in front of you know, eighteen thousand people and millions more watching at home and deliver a super impassioned speech, even even for people who
are involved in politics. I mean Tim Walls made a comment in his speech that he said, could you tell I haven't given very many speeches like this. It's it's not the easiest thing. I think he did a good job. Look, I think Doug em Hooff is another one of these guys who you know that he he is not a politician either. He's not really a he's more of a publican you're now, but he was not a public figure prior to the twenty twenty election, and he had a job to do, which was humanize her a little bit,
tell some funny stories. And I think he accomplished that goal. It wasn't a barn burning speech. It wasn't. It wasn't like.
Oprah, I want policy from the spouse, Yeah right, I mean.
No want you want something different, you want something a little softer, And I think he he clearly delivered on that. You know, I think that the messages from the Republicans here were pretty you know, they were the most concise I think of any of the speakers between Jeff Duncan and John Giles, the mayor of Mace, Arizona. You know, they clearly were the most mission driven of these speakers. They knew what they were there for.
And yeah, I want to talk about that for a second. Are we okay on time? One of the things that I really thought was important that they did was these Republicans created a permission structure for other Republicans to vote for a Democrat.
Talk about that.
Absolutely. I mean, this is the goal that every party has when they transition to general election mode, is how do we siphon off enough voters from the other parties team to make a difference. And that's why you have Typically in years past you've had prominent Democrats speak at Republican conventions. I mean, this was a thing Joe Lieberman got in trouble for this. Zel Miller, the former governor and senator from Georgia, spoke at the Democrats spoke at
the two thousand and four RNC. There's a long history of people crossing party lines to endorse the other party's candidate. I think it was notable this past our NC. They didn't have kind of a big figure. I mean, they had a couple of people who said that they were Democrats. But you know, we're talking about people like amber Rose, not you know, former senators or governors.
Amber Rose is not a known politician, so.
I mean, look, it's just it's a difference here. But clearly, you know, it's not a mistake that the two high profile Republicans for Harris that got speaking slots were the former lieutenant governor of Georgia, a very important state, and a mayor, a Mormon mayor from Arizona. The Democrats have made some real inroads in the LDS community in Arizona, especially in Nevada as well since Trump came on the scene, and that's something you know, they're clearly trying to target.
And we interviewed someone yesterday who's running for a Caroline Gleek in Utah, who was talking about how just how much Trump has alienated the LDS community.
Yeah, I mean I think that, you know, there's it's all relative, right. LDS voters are among the most Republican voters overall, and so even with some significant attrition, we're still talking about a very Republican constituency. Caroline obviously running a very underdog race as a Democrat in Utah, but look in twenty sixteen, right, Trump got under fifty percent of the vote in Utah because of eleven muth Mullen and his candidacy, which drew twenty plus percent of the
vote there. There's clearly no love loss between the LDS community or portions of the LDS community and Trump. And so again, Utah not about ground state, but significant population in Arizona, significant population in Nevada, and that matters in states that are being decided by a tenth of a percentage point.
Right, No, I think that's a really good point. I mean, there's so much of.
This convention, in my mind, was about trying to pick off those voters, like create the progression structure for Republicans,
make sure you get the young voters out there. And again, like everyone we're talking about the Obamas now because they are the best speakers in the entire Democratic Party, which you know, but they talked about how much you know, you know, fifty percent of both of their speeches were calls to action, right, They were like what you can do and how you can do it, which I think ultimately it's one thing to be a gifted orator, it's another thing to be a gifted orator and also be
able to just you know, tell people what they need to do.
Absolutely, and it's a it's a benefit to Democrats that they have people like the Obamas who are widely popular not just among Democrats, but you know, other political affiliations since they've left office, that are willing to come and give these speeches. I mean, look, honestly, I would lump Oprah in with that category as well, people that you know, Trump doesn't have an Obama to come and vouch for him, right, Trump doesn't have an Oprah to come and vouch for
him in a way that Harris does. And look, I've said this for a while that Harris's biggest advantage in this race is that she didn't have to run a primary. Yeah, there's a reason why when the Republicans make their ads and they pull their clips, it's almost exclusively from her twenty nineteen race because she took all sorts of stances on all sorts of issues that were really hot that year, like Medicare for all, like you know, a decriminalizing border crossing, things like that.
That I think she did decriminalize.
Okay, she didn't raise her hand on stage, but.
I think I'm pretty sure that that more news. It was a little yeah, I mean, anyway, yees.
She she took, she took a lot of stances. There were one, you know, the anti fracking stance that she since walked back. And that's where Republicans are going to, uh, you know, find their their oppo research on her, find find the hits. Because primaries got you in trouble like that, and she didn't have to run in one this time.
She was able to kind of emerge from you know, uh Zeus's head fully formed as as the as the presidential nominee with a staff of twelve hundred and a budget of two hundred million dollars that she doubled in the first you know.
She's raised five hundred million dollars now.
Yes, since since in the months since she got in, they say she's raised five hundred million.
Is that the most ever of anyone ever?
It might be in terms of a month campaign. You know, Biden raised over a billion, over billion is now kind of the price for entry for a Democratic.
Residential kidudent waste of money go on.
But she I wouldn't I don't know specifically, but I would imagine that five hundred million in one month is got to be the record for.
Okay, five hundred million in one month.
Jesus Christ, it's an incredible amount of money.
So there was so much, there were so many like people who were undermining her and underestimating her.
Have you ever seen a presidential launch go this, Well, that's a good question.
And the matrix are money, excitement, enthusiasm, volunteers, right, I mean, these are I'm not even talking about polling matrix.
I'm talking about things that are just like very kind of.
You know, you know, she's she's executed about as well as you could possibly have hoped for if you're her or her team, and you know, she again, she's been aided by the fact that this is a sprint and it's one that she was so able to consolidate support for in that first twenty four hours and turn her attention to Trump. I mean, the problem that Democrats have is that, you know, they are a fractious party. They are a lot of different it's a it's a diverse party.
It's not homogeneous, and and so they're not you know, the thing that unites them the most is a desire to get Trump away from the presidency, keep him out of the White House, and by asserting herself as the nominee within the first twenty four hours, that meant that she was the best shot, she was the only shot, and everything else has kind of followed from that. But no, absolutely, I mean she's between the initial rollout, locking down the supports Esiden exactly exactly. Now.
I mean this is not to say that Biden.
I think we will look back at Joe Biden as the best president I mean, one of the best president's Democrats have ever elected in modern history. But I also think that it is absolutely what you're saying is really important.
You know. And again, she benefits from the fact that this is a one hundred day campaign. If your Biden was running for office for sixteen months, did he.
Like the video?
The video was so good? Are you sorry? I got worries myself.
You know, A longer presidential campaign gives you more opportunities to make mistakes, make missteps, have events intervene. The fact that she only has to execute for one hundred days is a major advantage because look for as well as everything has gone for her thus far, if she had to do this for a year, who knows whether she
would be able to do it. Whether there would be things that would happen that would cause trouble, There probably will be things over the next seventy four days that rock the campaign, that make for challenge is I would be surprised if this is just a clean kind of rise, rise, rise until election day. That's just not how these races were.
Still, it's a you know, it's it's a honeymoon that seems to have a very very long honeymoon.
Well, the timing. Biden's timing was pretty excellent all things considered, dropping out right after the RNC immediately endorsing her, allowing her to get a favorable news cycle from the launch, another one from locking down the support and the endorsements, another one from the fundraising, then another one the next week was the rallies, that rally in Milwaukee that went off so well, and then the week after that she
launches the VP pick. Now we're in the convention, you know, we'll have kind of a quiet two weeks and then it's at the debate. There are opportunities here, given the calendar that that Biden kind of laid out with his own timing, that have allowed her to just kind of it's not a honeymoon. It's a snowball, right. It's she's got kind of signposts along the way that are are
allowing her to generate new momentum, favorable news cycles. And you know, after the debate, I think is probably the most interesting time that'll be, you know, the last kind of major event that we know is going to happen. Maybe there'll be another debate between her and Trump. Maybe they'll be a VP debate. I'll believe all that when I see it. But for the moment, she's got a number of opportunities not just have a honeymoon, but to keep that snowball growing.
You are, I'm going to ask you one last question, or Jesse's going to kill me. You are a polster by trade, right? Or you've started in polls. How many points does she get from this convention? What's the bomb here?
I'm gonna and by the way, if you're wrong, I'm just gonna be so well.
I'm not going to be wrong because I'm not going to give you a number. No. Look, I think it's going to be difficult to disaggregate from everything else that's going on because she already has momentum, seen her kind of steadily tick up from where she began a month ago. If you look at the trend line, it's a slow but steady rise. Trump is remaining flat. His support has always been you know, RFK is going to drop out, that's gonna you know, do.
You think those people go to Trump?
I think that disproportionately. They probably do for two reasons. First is because I think RFK has pretty much aligned himself with Trump on a number of policy positions by now. And the other thing is I think that Democrats who were RFK curious when Biden was the nominee have come back into the Harris fold. If they were looking at RFK because they just didn't like Biden. She is giving them something new to latch onto. So the remaining RFK
support the kind of the dwindling you know, rump. RFK support is already skewed toward Trump friendly voters, and so I would anticipate that most of that support, why they go to Trump, It'll go to Chase Oliver, jill Stein, doctor webs still over there, or or they'll stay on the couch, right, they just won't show up to vote.
Three points from the convention, No, I don't.
I looks she may have already right, like part there's there's a real argument to be made that some of this has already been baked in.
Because and a half points.
Sorry, she's because she got to introduce herself as the nominee with such a favorable news cycle. That's typically what the convention is for. She got to do that a month before the convention. So I wouldn't be surprised if it's I don't know. Look, I don't even know. I don't know if there will be a bump or if there'll just be a continued slight momentum upwards over the next couple of weeks coming into the debate.
Okay, so if you're wrong, you're coming back to two points you, Jacob exactly.
We have even more to or dates for you. Did you know the projects Rick Wilson of Fast Politics Mali jug Fast are heading out on tour to bring you a night of laughs for our dark political landscape. Join us on August twenty sixth at San Francisco at the Swedish American Hall, or in la on August twenty seventh at the Region Theater. Then we're headed to the Midwest and we'll be at the Vivarium in Milwaukee on the twenty first of September, and on the twenty second, we'll
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got you covered. Join us in our surprise Guests to help you laugh instead of cry your way through this election season and give you the inside analysis of what's really going on right now. Buy your tickets now by heading to Politics as Unusual dot bio. That's Politics as Unusual dot bio. Brider Shots is the senior senator from Hawaii.
Welcome back.
You're like a frequent flyer here too fast Politics Senator Shots.
Nice to see you.
Nice to see we are in person at the Democratic National Convention.
What number Convention is this for you?
I think it's for I don't even remember, but I think I did both Obamas and then Clinton and then yeah, so this is four.
So the vibes are a lot of people have said the vibes are Obama two thousand and eight.
Yeah, I think listen.
I think level of enthusiasm is very comparable to Denver and the Obama experience. What for me feels different is that with Obama and even last night, with both of the Obamas, it was always inevitably and it's not their fault at least partly about them and how magnificent they are and how.
Extraordinary they are because they're just so good.
But you kind of have this problem of how you're going to build a team around Michael Jordan, right, and with Kamala and Tim Walls. They are both extraordinary leaders, but there's not this sense of kind of like messianic devotion. There is this set you remember during it was actually Bernie versus Hillary. His campaigns a slogan was not me us Yeah, and that's what this feels like. This feels like this is all of us as a team, as opposed to all of us saying we found our political Messiah.
This is a hot take, and we know this is actually a smart take because Jesse Cannon just nodded, whereas with many of my interviews today he's been like.
Just sits stoically, We'll be like, stop doing stuff.
I can see somewhere else, which was he's very mean to me, but that's okay. But yeah, I mean, I think that's a really important point. And when we talk about Walls, you know, I was an early Walls and for a number of reasons I had interviewed him, we had been texting. I think he gave me a cell phone, which it turns out he gives a lot of people his cell phone because my cousin, when I was branging about this to him, said oh I have it too. Oh really yeah, So I was like, all right, well,
then there we go. So he has not texted me back, which maybe makes sense now that I know my cousin is also texting him. But one of the reasons why she chose him, I think, or at least from what we've extrapolated, is that he really is a team player, that's.
Right, and he understands team concepts like I understand that people, you know, want to sort of project onto him coach Waltz and all the rest of it.
But it's really true.
There's no small thing to be a successful football coach, and it is no small thing to have been in the military and understand team dynamics. And I think that he understands he's playing a role and he's proud to do it. My own judgment is that Tim Walls is making the case because he's aggressively normal.
Yeah, and like I.
Found this one job right called United States.
Senator, where if you are normal, right, that's a distinguishing characteristic. Yeah, And here's Tim Wallas. He's a governor and he just actually does seem like a regular guy.
Yes, well, it does seem like Again, I got troll by the right for talking about how folksy he was because they feel I am insufficiently folksy, which I mean is clearly true. But I thought, like the mid Western dad vibes are top tier.
Yeah, and it's not bullshit.
I mean that's a difference, right.
Yeah, when he's talking about how to fix a car, he clearly knows how to fix a car. It's not a shtick for him, it's not a presentation for him. This is genuinely the kind of person he is. Listen, in the first couple of days when he was doing that sort of cable TV run, right, everybody was very their curiosity was peaued. But my hesitation was whether he had kind of substance underneath it. And then you find out he's got all this governing success and just on
a human level, he's a dad. He's a little bit funny, but not joky funny, and he just knows what he's doing.
When he was a governor, it was the head of the DGA Democratic Governor's Association, explain to us what it means to do those leadership roles the DJA, or you have one that national Senate.
What does that mean?
It means that I mean, listen, the head of the DGA has to be unselfish, because you have to worry about other people's elections in places that you know generally don't necessarily mean anything to you in the narrowest political sense of it. So he has to be worrying about the Hawaii governorship and the California governorship in the New Mexico government governorship, and that, you know, builds his political chops.
He can raise money and all the rest of it.
But the other thing DGA does is they do convenings on stuff that's popping right now. There are lots of state based insurance crises.
I know, hard of being the top Florida, but.
Also condominiums like it's happening everywhere, and they end up serving as a platform for sharing information on the actual legislative pat of the job. So it's pretty good preparation for national leadership.
Give me sort of two seconds on he was in Congress. So he's been in Congress, he's been a at the executive level, he's been a governor. And then you have Harris who has been an ag a DA but first female vice president ever. I mean, what do you think that sort of background looks like as.
Cammie Well, I think, you know, they're sort of of the Congress, but not like creatures of Congress, like Kamala was there four years.
I served with her for those four years.
You know, Tim Walltz was a member of Congress but then went back and became a governor. And so it's great to have that kind of legislative experience. It maybe at some point turns a corner and becomes a downside risk politically, if you start talking like a member of Congress and you can only think like a member of Congress like these people have other both public service and human experiences that make them qualified.
Amazing. Thank you, Senator Chads.
Thank you.
Are you concerned about Project twenty twenty five and how awful Trump's second term could be? Well, so are we, which is why we teamed up with iHeart to make a limited series with the experts on what a disaster Project twenty twenty five would be for America's future. Right now, we have just released the final episode of this five episode series. They're all available by looking up Molly Jong
Fast Project twenty twenty five on YouTube. And if you are more of a podcast person and not say a YouTuber, you can hit play and put your phone in the lock screen and it will play back just like a podcast. All five episodes are online now. We need to educate Americans on what Trump's second term would or could do to this country, so please watch it and spread the word.
Stephanie Grisham is the former White House Press Secretary under President Trump.
Fast Politics. Welcome, Stephanie, Thank you for having me. So you just spoke at your first Democratic invention.
Yes, I did.
I'm still not believing it, but I did.
What is it like to speak at a democratic invention after working in the Trump White House and really taking a stand again Trump is well?
I mean, it's a joyful experience. It's a happy and welcoming experience, which is nothing that the Trump White House was. But in all seriousness, it's a great opportunity to talk to independence and other Republicans and kind of give them maybe the strength or the courage that it would take to, you know, go against your party. And I think when people can really understand what country over party means, that's important.
And I really believe that if we can reach enough independence and like minded Republicans that when they go behind the privacy of a voting booth, that they'll vote their conscience and that they'll vote for honesty and integrity back into our White House.
When you when you talk to voters and you tell your story, is there a moment when you were in the Trump White House where you were like, this is it? I can't do this anymore? And what was it?
Ugh pry too long for this podcast.
The moment hit me.
Yes on a flight with the First Lady and with the President after a mass shooting. It was just a terrible moment. And I tried to resign actually a few times after that, and Milani and I were quite close. She got me to stay. That's why I moved back to the east wing at the end, and then January sixth was my line in the sand, obviously. But yeah, as I watched him evolve, I wanted out more and more. But that's scary too.
Yeah.
One of the things that you've done is you have really left the public life. Yes, and you're just back here because you know the importance of voting against Trump.
Yet just talk about that for two seconds. Yeah.
Absolutely.
You know a lot of people say people being Republicans right now, that I'm here for relevance, to get paid all of that.
That's not true.
It's scary to do this. Like I said, I've got a life that I really enjoy. But I feel so so passionate about this and about her that I'm going to step back into this spotlight here and see it through until election.
Yeah. Thank you, Stephanie Gresha, thank you.
Sarah Nelson is the president of the Association of Flight Attendant c WAAFLC.
Welcome back to Fast Politics, Sarah Nelson, my friend.
Thank you, Mollie.
Feel like this has been like the unspoken story of Chicago twenty twenty four as labor.
Yeah, I mean, listen, it's a completely different DNC that I've ever been to. And what we're showing is that labor is on the move. Look at the UAW strike and the pulling out of that seventy five percent of American supporting that there's nothing as popular as unions in this country right now. And it's because working people are like standing up and organizing and demanding our fair share. And so we're seeing that play out in our politics.
I've been saying for a long time, Start in the work place and the politics will follow.
Yeah. So you are a union leader. You have been doing this long time.
Political parties like to pander to unions, but they don't necessarily like to make change for unions. But this Democratic Party seems like they are.
Look, this is exciting because Joe Biden started it. Okay, he came right out of the gate, right when he was president and said that the government is not just supposed to let unions exist, to actually encourage unions, and people all across the country got the message on that the Starbucks campaign.
Rose up out of that.
You know, we saw the successful campaign at Amazon, We've seen all this other organizing. We've seen other people rise up in their unions and take control and want to be more militant and take on the boss. And this is not something that we have seen in a very long time, and so appreciate Joe Biden on that. But
it also started before the pandemic. This is about Karen Lewis right here in Chicago with the Chicago teachers saying the word strike in twenty twelve and inviting the entire community into that strike, building enough power in this city to elect one of their own as mayor of Chicago right within ten years. And so we're seeing the results of that now. We're seeing that democracy doesn't just sort of exist with unicorn and rainbows everywhere. It exists within
the system of capitalism. And right now money is controlling our politics, and so we have to go attack that money where it exists, where the capital exists, and the organizing with private companies is what's changing our politics right now.
Yeah, I think that's so important. We got to get some esoteric stuff from this convention. What has this convention been like, for you, what has been interesting and strange that you've noticed? Give us anything? Wow?
You know, there's not a script for this convention. That's what's so incredible here. I think that what we are seeing is the perfect confluence of events here where we have needed a black woman to lead this country for a very long time.
But to say that is a hurdle too high to.
Get over in this country, it seems.
So what we've done is, you know, labor's been organizing, we've been building for this moment, the fact that we need new leadership. This country has been calling out for leadership, and the idea was that we didn't have a bench. But here you lift the lid and we're going to get the leader that we need who's meeting the moment because working people are rising up. And I think this
is allowing Kamala to be her true, authentic self. And so what we're seeing is a virtually unscripted convention, which is not what we have seen before. And I think people are feeling it and they're excited about it. That's what you fill in the room and they're going to go out and they're gonna act on that. I will
tell you with unions. What this means is that we can have conversations with people that were otherwise a drudgery to have in politics, and we can tell we can engage people in conversations now about why the election matters because they're already in the conversation. We don't have to pull them into it.
To start off with Sean Fain, he's pretty cool to discuss.
Yeah, I mean, listen, Sean Fain. I have been in a lot of UAW halls for the last ten years, and a lot of people have asked me around the labor movement, like I want to have a strong, fighting union, but I'm not so sure about my union. I've said, open up your constitution, your union belongs to you. And so here I was also saying.
Women join unions, run unions.
You know, we need your leadership. But young people, people of color, rise up. And so I've been telling you a w members, thank you for sending me a fighter, Thank you for sending me someone who is you know, going to push forward and use the power of that office to make change for working people, not just for UAW members, but to inspire people everywhere. Did you unions?
And I've said to them, what I had to realize is I had to check my own biases because I didn't know you were going to send me a fifty five year old grandpa from Central Indiana. But here he is, and a lot of people are inspired. But we got to lock this in. There's a lot of leaders everywhere and a lot to do.
Still.
Yeah, thank you so much, Sarah, Thank you.
Peter Siegel is the host of NPR's Wait Wait, don't tell me.
We never talk about old podcasts.
Oh right, Sorry, I actually have a very old podcast, so I wouldn't know. Oh yes, I never talked about the olden I'm going to ask you. I was on the bad podcast.
Now I'm gonna go on trivia. Okay, Democratic National Convention. Which one is stuck in your head?
Well, I've never been to one?
Oh you've never been.
This is my first time. Yeah, I've never been in New.
York Chicago, I I know, not even well. Rena the ill fated makare Mackarena one. Was that ninety six?
That was ninety six doing the Macharena. No, I wasn't living here.
Then, Mackarina, remember that.
Yeah, back in back in nineteen ninety six, I was an a political playwright living I don't even remember, I think in New York.
Oh, good for you.
We just had a senator walk by. I'm not used to that.
What they do They just walked by.
It was Mark Warner. He was just in. He was just in the floor.
That's right, talking Virginia.
Yeah, I know, the Great State.
Is it weird to be at this convention?
It's really weird.
I'm associating it because it's the only point of reference I have with being at the Oscars, because it's a thing that I've only seen on TV and now I'm here in person, and it's both kind of cool. Oh I'm here, but you're really watching them take a TV show, yes, which is so.
That's kind of fun. Yeah, and the floor is I mean, it's a good show, so I have no complaints.
Yeah, that's a.
Hot take right there, don't you think, Jesse Cannon you're watching it.
Jesse was like what, looking at his Jesse's.
Like, I'm so sick of these coordinating and it's like, I'm so sick of this person.
I just had a really cool moment with Jesse because I've never met Jessie.
He's the best.
And he started talking I'm like, oh my god, it's Jesse.
You can't do better than Jesse. Are you allowed to have opinions?
It depends on the topic. I'm allowed to have opinions about food. For example, Okay, I can have.
You seen any of the light up cowboy hats here? And what is your thought? I thought the light up when you've gotten me one.
Go Well, first of all, I have no access to light up white cobbye where where we're at MPR. We can't afford anything that lights up hah. In fact, I was going to steal you know, I don't know if you saw, but they have The entire auditorium is got these little blinking lights that all the big shows have. Now they're all these radio control blinking lights, right, so
they can do like light shows. And I was going to steal a bunch to use them for studio elimination because we have no budget and that would be cool.
What did you ask me about.
Your opinions about this convention or just tell us what you think the vibes are.
The vibe, well, the vibes are like genuinely fun fun, and.
Which for Democrats is not.
No, it's a new thing.
And I also feel like I'm spoiled because if I had been to any other democratic convention, I would assume they'd all be this joyful. Yeah, I don't, because I'm me and I have a brain that works. I think a little bit like yours does. I keep thinking about the alternative timeline in which it would be Biden and when she would be so forced there'd be a lot of obligatory excitement. That is something that I actually associate
democratic conventions. For example, I remember two thousand and four as you were saying that that was a lot of obligatory excitement.
One of the things that's happened with Harris is that the calculus has changed. Yes, and there is a lot of talent that was waiting in the wings, and now they may be waiting in the wings a while longer, do you know what I mean?
Because like she's she just jumped up in line.
She's in now, and if she wins, she's it for eight years.
You're not going for like the passing of the torch thing like now it's to the younger generation, which by the way, she's we're the same age, and the fact that she is the younger generation is the best thing that's ever.
Happened to me.
It's true, I feel really young.
It's great, but there are a lot of people for whom they now have to wait eight years.
I don't cry for them. They'll be fine.
But if sheel curious, how do you think that changes the calculus of this convention.
It's hard to say, but you'd imagine that everybody would be excited because it hasn't like one of the conventional wisdom complaints about Democrats is they're all basically dating from the Jurassic. Yes, yes, not even the Cretaceous, which was the later part of the Mesosoic, but the Jurassic, which is even older.
I might have a son who is really into a dinosaurs, or I've learned all this stuff.
So presumably they'd all be excited that all of a sudden, the young generation meeting people in their fifties are taking over, right, I mean our sixties. You know that's also cool. So I think everybody would be excited. Everybody seems very excited right now.
Right, No, it does, but there's quite a lot of ambition.
Summary well, it sounds like you think there is.
I think that there are a lot of really talented people who are now adjusting their expectations. And I think that's interesting because if Biden were the nominee, you would have like breakout star after a breakout star after a breakout star, and because now there's a real serious possibility of a Harris presidency, and that is exciting to me.
I just am curious sort of the calculus of the people like Whitmre and Newsome and these people who were really running for president until about a month ago.
So he is curious.
I mean, I don't have any I mean, you're much more wired than I am.
But your theory is like Gretchen Whitmer, or the Gretch as she actually calls herself, bigretch.
Excuse me, yeah, Bigretch.
No.
I think she's amazing.
And I'm not calling her out so much as I'm just thinking in my head of all of those candidates who were.
The idea is like they're thinking to themselves, Man, we had a chance to take the reins in twenty twenty eight, right, didn't we all assume that Trump was going to win, in which case there would be no elections in twenty twenty eight.
And that's what I thought.
This is my thinking too, But there were certainly some people I wouldn't underestimate how ambitious politicians are, not that we don't love them. In my head, I'm thinking about the sort of calculuses behind the scenes.
One thing I could tell you is that here in Cook County it works very much like that, that there's a line and you're in line. There's an elderly African American congressman who used to represent me, I want to say, Danny Davis. Yeah, and there's a rumor a couple of cycles ago that he was going to retire. And according to a friend of mine who was wired in to the African American politics in the West side of Chicago.
That means everybody moves up a step.
Yeah, Like so somebody, of course, a couple of people a going to run for his seat, that one would get it, and then somebody runs for that person's scene, and everybody gets to move up. It's almost like, you know, like a like a conveyor belt that has been stopped. So there's that idea, but I don't know if it works that way in sort of national democratic politics.
That's something I'm thinking about because we are trying to have takes about this convention that are.
Not just joyful fun. This is great. We're having the best time ever.
Just a little bit perhaps counterintuitive, but still smart, as my producer Jesse has told me to.
But isn't I mean, I think the fact that you're looking for kind of a dark side is a very democratic thing to do, and out of all the people, because everybody's trying to do it, I mean, democrats in array of course, is like not a storyline that anybody can go with. And I think that yours is so far the most smart sounding.
Well, I would just say, I just am thinking about what it's like to be a politician. And remember these are people whose entire lives have been decisions to get to this moment, right, and so I just am thinking about that in that way.
So I just wanted to meditate.
Thinkat with him, think of the jobs.
From NPR and your fancy and so we have to do things like meditate on ideas.
I'm so not fancy.
So in my show, I basically do dad jokes and fart jokes and dad far jokes.
That's what I do. You're in the sophisticated wire speaking of.
Dad jokes for a minute. One minute. We have one one minute left for you to talk about. He's very tough. He's a tyrant.
You need them. We only need one minute.
To talk about talent. There are air quotes now to talk about Tim Walls, the most dad of all dads. He has a tip top now he calls it a Tim talk.
WHOA. Here's the terrifying thing about like you all the Tim Walls jokes.
You know, Tim's the guy who'd like offered it, like pull over and offer to jump your cables. Tim Walls is the guy who's not only happy to give you directions, but will actually walk you down to the street and point you to the subway.
All those things.
I have done seventy five percent of those things, sometimes awkwardly in such a way that the person I was trying to do it for it did not appreciate it. But I felt such a familiar vibe. I think he represents me.
So are you saying you are a Midwestern dad and you see yourself?
I absolutely do. I feel represented.
And he's also again my age, which is utterly terrifying and a new young generation. But yes, we Midwestern dads.
Can you pull a thing out of your forward, a little piece of electronics?
You saw the video where he pulled.
That the little piece of the forward, and he figure, He's like, this is the guy.
This is a eleven box.
I can do that, but not with my Ford. I can do it with my Chevy.
I have a Chevy bolt and it's got this little little it's not even a latch, it's a hook that the false top and my hatchback, and it's constantly falling out. And what I could do is I could pull it out and say this is what you need to use. You need to You can't use guerrilla glue. Gorilla glue doesn't work. You need to use superglue like quick glue in order to make it stay.
So I could fell asleep, but I'm not awake anymore.
Would be fascinated by that.
So boring, but it's the charm. Maybe I'm asleep now. Is this all a dream?
That's the charm of Tim Walls. It's all ultimately boring, and yet it's good. It's good boring. We could use fine right as opposed to like, you.
Know, the stars exactly. Thank you, Peter, My pleasure.
Kelly Robinson is the president of the Human Rights Campaign.
Welcome Cali. Yeah, happy to be here, Delighted to have.
You start by telling us what your organization's name is and what it does.
Yeah, we're the Human Rights Campaign where the largest civil rights are organization focused on the LGBTQ plus community in.
The United States.
We've been around for forty years advocating fire issues, and we'll be around until we're all.
The way free.
What will that look like?
You know, I think it's so interesting because it actually looks like the basics that everyone else has being true. You know, earlier this week, I was talking to one of our trans kids in Arizona and he was talking about wanting to go to prom. I was talking to one of the kids in Texas and this kid was talking about getting a driver's license that had the correct
gender on it. So when I'm talking about us getting all the way free, I'm talking about us being able to live out loud, but like only when we are just like everybody else.
Yeah, I mean Republicans the attacks on transgender children, Like, clearly they saw polls that showed their people liked it. But in my mind, I can think of nothing worse than a group of people who are already targeted by peers being targeted by adults in power.
Exactly, I mean, it's bullying and it's mean spirited. You have whole adults. They're spending too much of their state legislative time attacking kids, trans kids, youth. Yeah, and you know, I think that what has really happened is after Roe v. Wade was overturned, they thought they were going to be
winning on abortion right. But then the twenty twenty two elections happened and we stomped on them right, with abortion ballot amendments winning all across the country, with anti abortion candidates losing.
And then the American Principles.
Project, their executive director Actor actually said this that after that election cycle, they came together and we're throwing ideas at the wall, and attacks on trans kids is what's stuck. So this is not about families, it's not about our kids. It is about political power, and we've got to make sure that we're increasing visibility for our community and not allowing these bullies to try to build their political power in the backs of our kids.
Yeah. I think that's right, and I think so much. You know, I have three teenagers and wants you is.
LGBTQ, and I come from a groovy family where people are allowed to be however they want to be. So I've always been with my kids like you are who you are. But one of my kids is a lot of friends who being a teenager is hard, Being a trans teenager is ten times harder, being an LGBTQ teenager is. You know, it's all hard, and we have a Republican government that is obsessed with making it harder exactly.
But the thing I always want to say is that it's not hard for a kid that is trans to be trans. What's hard is that they're living in an environment that doesn't support them in their identity and forces them to try to be somebody else.
Yeah.
Right, So we got to fix the environment because these kids are amazing. And I think one of the other sides of this is that our opposition is scared. They see the same numbers that I see. Thirty percent of Generation Z identify as a member of our community, many of them being trans.
Or non binary.
They know that if this demographic can be fully who they are, they are never going to see political power ever.
Again.
Yeah and good, but it is interesting because they will quote that number as a reason why it has to be stopped, Like they'll say, why is it more kids than it was before, and they never put it together that finally people feel a little.
Bit safe to be who they are exactly exactly.
And you know, queer and trans people we have always been here. These identities are not something new. But what is changing is the environment that we're in. I mean, you've got culture creators like Beyonce that put ballroom and black clear culture on center stage. Yeah, you got Tracy Chapman's Fast Card now being sung in country music bars.
Right.
Queer people have always been a part of the fabric of our nation, and now I think what scares them is that we're out of the closet and we're letting people know about it.
Yeah.
But for me and I think that's the power of being at the DNC, is that in spaces like this, we're not afraid of the.
Diversity of America. No, it's true, we understand it's our greatest strength.
What does your organization do in this sphere, Like, what are the sort of nons and bolts that you guys do.
Yeah, well, we are laser focused on making sure that we get Kamala Harris elected as president and Tim Wallas as vice president. You know, I think for the first time ever having a vice presidentidential candidate introduced to the country with a story about how he was an advisor yes for a gay Straight alliance.
That's incredible.
I mean you look back ten or fifteen years, that story wouldn't have been told as a testament to his character in the way that it was. So we're really making sure that at the federal levels, we're electing people that will advocate for the LGBTQ plus community. But also looking down the ticket right, looking at the United States Senate, looking at the United States House of Congress, looking at
state legislatures. So here we're all about making sure that candidates get elected that will support us and letting people know what we expect when they are in office, because at the end of the day, you know, the election is only a moment in time, a very important moment, but just a moment. We have to make sure that people are ready to advocate for those people that we elect, to put in place laws and policies that protect us.
And to do that you need the president, but you need a lot more folks to to support it.
Are you heartened by the codifying of gay marriage, Yes, yeah, I think it's because that was the one thing when they were codifying things, there was the one thing that passed.
Yeah, passed with bipartisan support.
Well, I know, you couldn't pass anything that wasn't bipartisans exactly in one way, despite all the bad news, that was a bright spot.
Yeah, And the real impact of that, I mean, I've talked to families all the time, is that the federal benefits that come along with marriage allow people to live. I was just talking to a couple. They've been together twenty nine years. Is Trina and Holly in Pennsylvania. They've been together twenty nine years by heart, but nine years by law. And I asked him, like, why was it so important for you to get legal marriage, and they said,
because we have a child. If we moved out of the state that we're in, it's not guaranteed that both of us would be recognized as that child's parents. So when you think about the federal benefits, the ability to care for your.
Family, because I was pregnant and we needed insurance, exactly, he had insurance and I didn't. I mean, I love him too, but we've been married for ten million years.
But yes, yeah, but a marriage is not just about the party. It's about all the benefits that come and the way that it validates your relationships and your.
Love and also you protect your kids.
Exactly. Yeah, and the rest aren't off the table.
I mean, you say, I'll have the Supreme Court saying that they want to revisit at Bergefell and Windsor and Lawrence. I mean, we have to be really mindful that with Roe v. Wade being overturned, it has opened the door.
Exactly.
Yeah. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. You are amazing.
Thank you.
Andandy Patinkin is an actor and singer known for his work in the Princess Bride, Homeland, as well as Broadway and countless other performances.
I am like brought back the yen to aesthetic. Okay, because I have. You know, I'm the Jewish mother? Am I a Jewish mother?
The worst?
The do you have children?
Oh my god?
How many do you have a lot?
Like two many?
Like the lady with the shoe.
Yeah, so I have.
I was the only child of my mother because she was thirty seven when she had me.
Feminists didn't want to have kids, forget it. I have three kids. One is twenty and two or sixteen?
Are they twins?
Yes? And all I do is yen to.
Them identical, no fraternal, but like all I do is say and then you're going to go here. You'll do this New York City, right, act tutor, and you have this and you have that.
Yeah, And they're like, be busier because we.
Can't stand you basically in a nice way, right, Jessie isn't in a nice way?
Not really? Now I have one kid?
Are you a good cook? Do you feed them?
What are you kidding me? I'm a Jewish?
Where do you get their dinner?
Right?
Where do you get it from?
It is willed to arrive.
You remember silver Palette on Columbus and you were Sheila. I don't remember her name. We have the cookbook, but my wife would bring home. Her idea of cooking was when the kids were like two, three, four, five through you know eighteen, put twelve things on the table.
That's right.
There are many opportunities to eat.
She can burn water, my wife. But both my sons are extraordinary cool.
See this is a sign you're a feminist. Okay, welcome to mad talking.
I'm talking about burning the water.
I wanted to be on.
Me as we were almost thrown out of our buildings.
In the podcast, we.
Were almost thrown out of our building because yeah, yeah, yeah, yes.
Do you still live in New York? Yes, it sounded like you lived in Chicago.
I'm from Chicago, South side of Chicago. Yes, but the fire department came regularly to our building in New York because she left the water boiling and then the pots would burn, and then we were asked essentially to leave the building.
It's a victimless crime. Bad cooking.
Actually maybe no, what it is, it's uh, you know, she hates cooking, she hates technology. She can't learn how to work the phone or her computer. Yeahs, she becomes you know, just jeckl and hide. It's it's frightening.
You're an iconic actor. I'm sorry to tell you.
You know who you're talking to.
And you also you have strong political beliefs.
Where did they come from? How did you get there?
They came from my wife around the dinner table, my wife, Catherine Grodie, who brought our two sons and Isaac up along with the third son, Mandy, and taught us our political beliefs. Literally, she educated all of us in ways that when she asked me, were my parents' Democrats? Or Republicans. I'm from the South side of Chicago. We went to Congregation roadte phase Etach and I honestly answered her, I don't know. They were just men's club and sisterhood. I
never knew what their political affiliations were. And then we just she just brought us along. And then when we started doing concerts, when every cause came up, we we would, you know, put out the word at the end of the concert, so we didn't bother people. The kids would come up, we'd put out a box, we'd you know, raise a lot of money for wonderful causes. You know, we I could, you know, a whole list of things that we did over the years, and it became the
privilege of my life to do political work. When I was shooting Homeland, I got to Berlin in twenty fifteen, so I think that was a fourth or fifth season, and it was when the Syrian refugees were, you know, making the trek across the Balkan route to try to get to Germany, ironically, of all places, and the first episode of that season was in a Syrian refugee camp and a fictional Telember and I'm thinking to myself, I'm looking at these photographs of children and husbands, wives, and
I'm thinking, that's my family, those are my children, those are my kids, that's my fav I need to be with those people. So I made phone calls and I got Ruth Messenger on the phone, who's a friend of ours. We work with often and we care deeply about her. She really walks the walk and you know she is done talked to talk. She's the real deal. And she said, get with the IRC and she told me who to call.
And the day Homeland shooting was over. In that season in Berlin, I was on the first plane to Lesvos Grease and within moments a little girl in a pink jacket was put into my arms. I wanted to just walk with people and give them comfort. And I thought the child had died. She had a face mask on. She had an epileptic fit. In the boat. We got her immediate medical care. Family got separated. We brought them together and other people that we met, you know, we got them on the train and on the on the
ships to get them to Germany. And it changed my life. When you go around with organizations like the International Rescue Committee and you see the beautiful work they're doing to make people more aware of the refugee crisis and teach people how to welcome them into your country because you
were the product of a refugee at one point. Everyone virtually in America is It's very moving to see these women, basically who have watched their family be literally dismembered in front of their eyes, and yet they get their strength back. They build huts with their own hands, spend two hours a day to bring food to their children, to take them to school. And those are the ideas that Kamala Harrison, Tim Waltz care about. They care about humanity. David Miliband, who's the head of.
International Rescue Committee.
I was speaking one somewhere with him, and out of the blue, I just said, you know, I'm not a politician. I'm a humanitician. I care about human beings, all human beings all over the world. There are people on the other side of the political equation right now that care less about others and care more about themselves. And it's unconscionable and the level of hate rhetoric and violence and ego and no regard for the law of the constitution or democracy or the voting system all of it takes
your breath away, it makes you dizzy. You really need to sit down and gather yourself. Joe Biden has done a wonderful job of rescuing our country and had the graciousness to pass the baton because we all get older. I'm getting older, girl, I'm getting older. And he said, Kama, take us, take us there, And she's taken us there, and we're going to change not just the United States, but we're going to support world democracy, morality, ethics, people
who care about human beings. And that's what America is about, and that's what melez about. You know it in her smile, for God's sakes, And when you hear Tim Walls speak, you knew it immediately that this was a teacher for all of us, not just a coach, but a teacher. We've had the blessing of Joe Biden, and now we have this blessing. It reminds me my piano player retired in twenty fifteen after thirty years.
Then I got a.
New piano player, and I look up into the sky and I go, how come, how do I get these two people in my life that know my heart beat and hear me and I can make music with Well, if you work for Kamala Harrison, you get her and Tim Watson, you get them elected. And you do what you can as an individual. Don't think that you don't have power. If you don't have a lot of money, or you're not a notable person or have a radio
show or whatever. You have a vote. And there's nothing more important in this world at this moment than the power of your vote. And go knock on doors, Tell one person, give yourself a goal. Like they said the other night, five people, finish doing that. Contact ten people. Yeah, finish doing that. And you know, don't wait till Monday to start your diet.
Right, it's a good point.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for what you're doing.
That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to hear the best minds in politics makes sense of all this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going. And again, thanks for listening.