DNC Debrief: Taking Back Flags & Camo, ft. Senator Lephonza Butler
01:06:46 Share

This Halloween, ghoul all out with Instacart. Whether you're hunting for the perfect costume, eyeing that giant bag of candy, or casting spells with eerie decor, we've got it all in one place. Download the Instacart app and get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes. Plus, enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Offer valid for a limited time. Minimum $10 per order. Service fees, other fees, and additional terms apply. Instacart, bringing the store to your door this Halloween.

Rise and shine, fever dreamers. Look alive, my friends. I'm Fee Spear. And I'm Sammy Sage. And this is American Fever Dream, presented by Betches News. Where we explore the absurdities and oddities of our uniquely American experience. We are back from the DNC. And since we had so many episodes last week, we have made a few adjustments to our schedule.

we actually had some audio issues with our Thursday night recap. So we're going to kind of do it again now. But honestly, this will probably be better than our midnight reaction from Thursday, to be totally honest. Honestly, that episode was trash. And I think it is God's will that the audio is corrupted somehow because Sammy and I were one so exhausted. And it was just like,

We were just a mess. I remember trying to film the episode and trying to get my thoughts straight, and I just literally couldn't, which may also be because Trad Media released a bio weapon on Sammy and I, and we now both have COVID that I think we definitely contracted from the dirty looks of journalists Thursday night. So blame it on that. Allegedly. We're kidding. Allegedly. A lot of people have COVID.

Seems the DNC was a bit of a super spreader event. I'm asking for any pity. We knew what we were getting into when we got into it. And gratefully, I am vaccinated. I have my updated booster and my symptoms were mild. I was just really tired, had a headache. But I think definitely Thursday night was a rough night to try and record. Just the flood of emotion, the exhaustion, that moment when you can finally release. It was not a good idea to try to record at midnight. No, no, no. But we have since let it set in. Yeah.

Yes. Here we are.

We also promised an interview with Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow. I had an awesome opportunity to interview her, but we've decided to save that piece of the episode for Thursday. She and I had a live conversation at the Power Lounge, which was hosted by the Meteor and the organization Emerge. And we talked about how to embrace your political voice and take steps to get involved, especially as white women of a certain level of privilege. So she is a great chat.

Big fan of hers. You may remember her as one of the speakers who had the honor of bringing out the Project 2025 giant textbook prop. My least favorite part of the whole convention, the oversized prop comedy. But yes. It was memorable, though. It was. I wonder if it was memorable to people other than us.

I'm also glad we're doing this episode today because over the weekend, Trad Media has just absolutely failed their industry and the American people. And they're now saying like, well – like they fact-checked Kamala Harris' speech to say that she said that Project 2025 was the manifesto for Trump's second administration. And then traditional media had the audacity to say, uh-uh, he claims it's not.

Like we're going to start to take the word of a known liar. He also tweeted over the weekend that his administration would be the best for women's reproductive health. So what the hell is going on? The double standard.

around the about around how the Harris Wallace campaign is held to account for what they say and will do and the exactness of their words is so just miles away. It's malicious. Trump is held to I'm going to call it malicious because I mean, they had Cory Booker on and he's like, you know, I used to be I used to play football. And they're like, well, to be clear, you didn't play in college or you didn't play in the NFL. You played in college and high school. He's like,

No one thought you played in the NFL. I'm just saying I played football and I remember being on a high school team like Tim Walls. Like they didn't even let him finish before they're like super fact checking him. Walls is an assistant coach, not a coach. Like what? What is going on with them?

It's like, okay, so who cares? They can't find anything to actually complain about with her, so they're nitpicking the dumbest stuff, saying things like joy is not a strategy. Okay, but hate is? But also joy actually is a strategy. Right. That is a proven- It's working. Way to fight back against authoritarian movement. Yep. Through joy, through interpersonal connections, through creativity- Yeah. And artistry. And-

If you read pretty much any authoritarian scholar, they will say something to this effect. So actually, joy, humor are strategies that are effective for the type of government and the type of campaign that Democrats are running against. So, you know, whatever, they're entitled to say what they want. Something that I'm realizing in the past weekend as I've watched various people react to the

trad media versus creators controversy, and then also some things like this, is that I almost feel that these outlets are only making content for...

Yes.

They are seeing clips online of what's actually being said, and they can judge for themselves. So I think the irony is that they're only speaking to themselves, and we as creators, especially in the parts where we're talking about that sort of conflict, are almost doing them a favor by saying,

making it bigger because I've spoken to creators who were not part of the DNC who were like, I didn't know this was a thing. Yeah. That's why I talked about it today. I was like, look, here's the deal. We're better when we work together. And the New York Times says for being America's paper of record has, has inaccurately covered fascism wrong forever to the point that in the 1930s and forties, they refused to cover Nazism because they thought that it would be too biased to cover the Nazis. And,

So like this, they do the same shit with Trump. Oh, I've read those Hitler headlines. Yeah. Tamed by prison. Hitler contemplates returning to Austria or something. I posted it on my Instagram. Yeah, we're seeing the same thing with Trump here where they're like, has Trump turned over a new leaf after the assassination attempt? And Trump can win on charisma alone. They're using opinion as their headlines. And then they're hiding behind, oh, no, no, it was just an opinion. No, you understand that the average person does not look at it and go, that's opinion. They go, the New York Times published it.

Not to mention that where's the journalism about the attempted assassination? No one cares anymore. Trump cares about everything, but he doesn't care about the guy who tried to shoot him. I mean, I don't want to be a conspiracy theorist, but it does feel a little bit like they're moving on pretty quick from that.

It's weird, I'm going to say. Weird in a different way than J.D. Vance is weird. It's suspicious. It's suspicious. It's unusual. I don't think it's a conspiracy theorist-y. Anytime you have these major gaps in information and inconsistencies, like the FBI director, Christopher Wray, going before Congress and testifying that Donald Trump might have been hit by a piece of glass from the teleprompter, and then...

Two days later, after there was a very strong reaction to that, actually changed what he said and said he had been shot by a gun. But then this guy's ear is totally fine.

which doesn't make any sense with the type of bullet that was used, very large one. And why does suddenly no one care about learning more about this assassin? It was days after and it was an overstory. And for Trump being a person who holds grudges against people for years, brings it up constantly, is such a victim all the time. The time that he's actually allegedly a victim of gun violence, of being an attempted assassination, and he doesn't run on this more. The fact that he doesn't even mention it anymore is, and it's,

It was like four or five days afterwards he stopped mentioning it. Right. It doesn't make sense. No. It doesn't compute with his past behavior. But yeah, I mean, I think that there's a lot of ways in which legacy media has abdicated their roles. And I just want to make the argument that

Content creators are the ones who are now capable of doing the investigative journalism that a lot of these outlets are advocating their responsibility. Like you said, they're so busy talking to each other and mainstream media television has become just a pundit show where we see the same voices constantly talking to each other. And I love it. I love it. I love it because it's like me in the group chat with my conversations. But is it journalism? Is it teaching us something new? Is it uncovering things? Sometimes it is.

You know, you can't tell me that Rachel Maddow isn't, you know, doing real journalism. You know, there are shows. I'm talking about CNN, right? Who's supposed to be the middle here or something like. Right. It's their nonsense these days. Also this obsession with getting a sit down with. To do what? The principles. Right. When, but why are you entitled to this?

What makes you think you're entitled to it? Let's be so real. She's been available for sit downs for the last four years and nobody wanted to talk to her. The New York Times was fucking obsessed with the fact that I had a sit down with Vice President Harris. They thought it happened at the convention. This happened months ago when I talked to her while she was on her abortion tour. Yeah.

It is in this feed. It is in the American Fever Dream feed. But this whole time you guys have had access to her when she was doing her abortion and reproductive health tour, when she was talking about the border, when she was doing all kinds of different work. Nobody wanted to talk to her. Now, all of a sudden, you want to sit down to do what? To talk to her about Trump. And she's not going to do it. She's not going to waste her time.

Because their narrative was she's not doing anything. Right. So to confirm that narrative, they had to not cover anything she was doing. Or they were focused on people's reaction to Gaza and not anything else the administration was doing. I do happen to think that we need to redefine the paper of record. I think the real paper of record is the Atlantic. Oh, OK.

Or the New Yorker. I'll give you that. I think they're doing great stuff. I would even push Washington Post to a higher level than the New York Times based upon the fact that they have integrated TikTok and the work that Dave and Carmela and Joseph are doing is truly incredible and on the cutting edge of this creator space. I think the Washington Post is excellent. I think LA Times, it has not been talked about enough, but their billionaire owner last year completely dissolved the Washington DC and investigative journalist bureaus

during an election year. Like that needs to be taught. Why aren't they investigating what happened there? They cut Kimbrielle Kelly, Aaron Logan, some of the most consequential investigative reporters of our time, LA Times known for their investigations, cut that, silence, nothing. Nobody talked about it. That's weird. That's strange. That's weird, but it's not weird when you consider who the LA Times was holding accountable and how that played with their billionaire owners' friends. Right, I think it's tough because reporters...

Do a great job. Yeah. The reporters are really doing their, their job. It's the management and the publishers.

that are causing the issues. And they are preemptively causing an issue in the debate. Now, the debate has been decided, the rules were decided, and ABC and CNN and all these different outlets are now publishing conflict between the Harris and Trump campaign upon the rules of the debate. Maybe Trump won't come because it's not fair now. Do you want to know what's not fair?

She wants the mics to stay on the whole time and his camp wants them to be able to be muted when it's not their turn to talk because they don't trust their candidate to be able to be a professional for 90 minutes. And Kamala Harris is like, I don't believe in censoring. If he's going to interrupt and say things that he should interrupt and say things, you shouldn't be in control of him. He should be in control of himself. But they have spun this to make it look like Harris changed the rules or like she doesn't want to be fair when in fact she's being exacted.

Exactly the kind of fare that the right wing demands constantly, which is this totally uncensored raw access. Totally. Free speech. Either way, it is so inconsequential. Yeah. And this is not priority. I think there's also a general lack of prioritization. They're following like he said, she said, he said, she said. Yep.

I try to do this in the morning announcements. I try to ignore the what so-and-so said. I really only try to cover actions that happened, things that occurred. That's news. He said, she said, he said, she said, you're being manipulated by these people in many cases. Because unless you're announcing a policy or an action that you're going to take, you're just whining.

Well, we're going to be in Philly on September 10th doing some live content. It will either be for the debate or it'll be a town hall because Harris has said she's showing up either way. And if ABC pulls the plug on it when she shows up because Trump didn't, I think that gives you an indication of who the media is rooting for. They have said before their ratings were never better than when Trump was president. I don't think they're going to pull the plug because they've sold advertisements.

against this. Well, then I'm hoping for a town hall because, I mean, isn't that what we're going to get from her anyway? He's going to say crazy stuff and she's going to hopefully be presenting some policies. Now, for the folks who say Kamala hasn't presented any policy, she absolutely has now that the DNC is over, which is really like a pep rally for the loyalists and donors and super fans of Democrats.

They have published what will be the Democratic platform, the things that she will spend the next two months running on. And we'll do a rundown of that maybe next week once we've had some time to digest it. Because here's the thing. I'm kind of like annoyed that we have to like oversell her when –

He has presented no policies. His policies are Project 2025 and Agenda 47. He is running on a cult of personality and fumes and lies. And we have to try and present him as if he's equal to what she's done at all. I understand that. And I think that that's exactly what the struggle is with covering authoritarianism. But I do think that if we stay aligned with the proper way to cover something like this,

that will be what is beneficial in the long run. And listeners, we hope that we are doing right by you. Please tell us, AmericanFeverDream at Betches.com. Please tell us if we are doing right by you and in the way we are covering these things, because it is important to cover her and to share what she's actually doing rather than chase these narratives of, oh, she has not presented any policy. She has.

She hasn't presented legislation because that's not how it ever works because you have to work with Congress because they're the ones who pass legislation constitutionally. But I think she's actually been – I could recite what her policy is. Let me debunk two more things about the DNC that were criticisms from my community so that – and then we'll move into our recap of her speech.

One thing that was heavily criticized and that a lot of the LGBTQ press has picked up is the fact that this is the first time since 2012 that a trans person hasn't spoken on stage.

And I think that that reporting assumes that a trans person wanted to speak on stage. And I know that her campaign has trans people that work in it. She's advised by trans folks. Trans media outlets were there, including Translash Media, which is like the premier trans journalist. Charlotte Clymer was there, who is also an incredible trans journalist.

None of those people who are also involved in advising her asked for speaking roles at the DNC. And there was no emerging figure who is trans who wanted to be on that stage because what happens when we put trans people in a spotlight is their careers and their person and their safety is so gravely affected that it is a balance of what is the cost benefit analysis of this versus

We know that Kamala Harris is the most pro-LGBTQ candidate in a generation, perhaps ever. And her policies and her history is rock solid, plated in gold when it comes to doing the right thing for trans people and queer people. She did not need to have a trans person on stage to reaffirm what we already know is true. And she did not need to put a trans person up there as a sacrificial lamb to libs of TikTok and Fox News and the general media who is so trans-obsessed.

that it could have detracted from the message and from her electability, which is a greater protection for trans people. So she works with GLAAD. GLAAD was there. HRC was there. I was there. We were all there. There was a reason why there wasn't a trans person on that stage, and it's because there wasn't one that wanted to come forward and speak and be that sacrificial lamb. And it's because in the overall scope of what's going on, she has made her position on LGBTQ issues very clear. You know, I think this is a great example of what

true inclusion is like when you don't need to tokenize someone to prove that you're for them because this seems like an optical complaint because I feel like there are plenty of trans people at the DNC. It did not feel like an underrepresented group. I think to your point, like,

If there had been someone who had been like, oh, that person seems like they were missing from the roster for whatever reason. Like someone I think who didn't have a spot who I would have expected was Gavin Newsom. Sure. If you had like a Gavin Newsom figure who was a trans person and they were not speaking, maybe you could say, why didn't they get to speak?

But I think that if anything, it just shows what real equity is like, because you don't need to make a point. We're already in the room. And that's the thing is like, we were already in the room. We're on her advisory team. She's got a whole task force dedicated to this when it comes to justice reform, when it comes to cost of living. Trans people are included across all of her policies. And to that point, we didn't need to be tokenized. And to a double, triple point for those listening, we were asked, right?

They were asked. And it was, you know what? I think at this particular time, putting somebody out there could cause them more damage than could provide elevation to an issue that we are already well involved in. There are many ways to attack something and putting somebody on stage isn't necessarily one of them. I think some of the places where there was inclusion where there hadn't been before was folks like John Russell, who is a content creator and union organizer from Appalachia who got up there and said that this is the new home for workers.

That was incredible. There was a lot of folks that we would have never heard from if they had followed the same formula of like checking boxes of equity. The forces of equity have changed. We are included in more spaces than we were before. And thereby, we were able to open up the doors to folks who were really never heard from. I think that is an interesting point just of this convention and of the Harris-Walls campaign overall.

You never feel like they're tokenizing anybody or that they're excluding. But you also don't, and I don't even think this is like a political strategy that they're like hiding the DEI that like she would be the first black woman South Asian president. It doesn't feel like they're hiding that. It just doesn't feel like that is something that she spends a lot of time thinking about. I think she is like, no, this is my job. I work to, for these causes for the people.

She seems like someone who is just, I do my job. This is not about the optics. It's not about window dressing. It's not about the people I shout out for the sake of lip service. I'm just going to show with my actions who and what I prioritize.

Yeah. And during her speech, she did not mention her gender, her race or anything like that because it can't be about that. And this was honestly one of the first times that I wasn't billed as LGBTQ journalist V Spear. And it was on purpose. And I appreciated that. And I want us to move towards this a little bit. We don't need these qualifiers at the top of where we are. I don't need to start every podcast or interview with tell us your coming out story before we listen to you talk about the issue you're here to talk about.

And I'm glad to see that she didn't put these identities in front of really any of the speakers. It was a mix of people and they weren't identified as like black sexual assault survivor, trans journalist. You know what I mean? Like it was I really appreciated that.

And that representation was reflective in the room. It seems to me that that is now reflected in the party. And that is what real inclusion and belonging is like. As a white woman, I would know, right? Yes, as a white woman, I appreciate your perspective on inclusion. Now, a group that folks will say wasn't included to the level that they should have been was the uncommitted movement. I just want to kind of break this down real quick, too.

There are several different pieces to the movement for Palestinian liberation. There's the uncommitted movement, which is this organization of people who got folks to go to the polls and vote uncommitted. 700,000 people. Because 700,000 people went to the polls during the primaries and voted uncommitted, uncommitted earned 33 delegates. These are Democrats who attended the convention, who are part of this uncommitted movement. And up

front, it felt like, oh, are they trying to be a spoiler? Are they trying to say like, oh, they're uncommitted? They're never going to vote for her? No, they were uncommitted to Biden. That's what was happening at that time. They showed up to this convention very much looking forward to supporting Harris, very much saying that they're anti-Trump and saying that there was a couple of things that they had hoped would

that they could use their uncommitted delegates, just like the state of Michigan has delegates or the state of Florida has delegates, and they push for certain policies that will benefit their state. Uncommitted was pushing for certain policies that benefit this group of people who voted uncommitted. And those things were they wanted an immediate ceasefire, they want an arms embargo, and they wanted an inclusion on the stage at the DNC. Now they got a little piece towards some of that,

Right up until the last day, we really did think that they were going to put this elected representative from Georgia, Rua Roman, on the stage to give her speech. Her speech was about being an uncommitted – representing the uncommitted movement who was violent.

in the end, likely going to vote for Harris and saying, please don't use the pain of Palestinians to try and convince people not to vote or to not vote for Harris. Those are not missions that they have. I want to play you just the 30 second clip of what she said. We had her upstairs on the official unofficial DNC live stream, which became a catch all for a lot of folks who could have had a space on TV, but it just, you know, the schedule didn't work out that way.

And every single day of the DNC, there was a meeting with Kamala Harris's team and the Uncommitted Movement, including a full DNC official panel on day one that was to hear the concerns of Palestinian American voters that was with the DNC and with the Uncommitted Movement.

So it's not to say now we wanted to see her on stage. I think her message was a good one broadly. I think it also breaks up the monolith or this idea that all of the protesters are the exact same kind of militant. I hate America people. That's just not true. The uncommitted movement did not represent that. Let's play for you just this clip from her and recognize that the DNC and the Harris campaign is committed to continuing conversations with uncommitted all the way up until the election. So we do think that we'll see an endorsement from uncommitted to her at some point.

So some folks are maybe confused what the uncommitted delegates have power to do. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because they want to vote for Harris, it seems like, but they need a little bit more of a commitment from her about the issues of Palestinian humanity.

and ceasefire. Is that correct? They're literally here to say we do not want to stop the vibes, ruin the party, be party poopers, any of that. What we are saying is, hey, this is still a really big issue that can really hurt us ahead of November. And I want to be clear, a lot of y'all online are seeing this where people are using the pain of my community to say you should give up, nothing matters, you shouldn't be involved.

And that kind of nihilism to me is very dangerous because you're basically surrendering to your opposition ahead of time. So there we go. There's some stuff in there that of course, as Biden is the president,

Harris isn't going to be able to push for like an arms embargo. Y'all got to go petition the White House for that. That's Biden's call right now. But they are giving her this sort of like, I guess, courtesy of allowing her to separate herself as the incumbent vice president to Biden from what a future President Harris would look like when it comes to policy in the Middle East. Right. What I think is the most important piece of this is understanding how the pro-Palestinian movement is not a monolith. Right. And

As an outsider, I imagine this sort of maps onto the actual situation in Gaza, where there are millions of innocent Palestinians just under Hamas. And you have something similarly reflected where you have Palestinian Americans who are advocating for those people. But then you have people in the movement who are not really...

necessarily part of that, but they are anti-Western, anti-Semitic. They really mean death to Israel and death to all Westerners. And

And they are a big piece of this. You know, those are the agitators. Those are the people running online operations. And the FBI has said that there is a foreign influence movement from Iran in this election. And if you think it's not going to be primarily centered around creating a schism around Gaza, I don't know what to tell you, because that is the key issue. That is why the uncommitted movement even has power, because they have

big influential pockets of voters in key states. So it is part of Iran's plan to exploit that issue. Well, and we saw some of this in the bot comments also, and some of the misappropriations of some other speakers. There's a speaker, Olivia Giuliano, who's like 20 years old. She's out of Texas. She's really on the front lines of the reproductive health movement. She got famous because Matt

Gates called her fat in a tweet one time, and she raised $2 million off of it for reproductive health. So really interesting speaker, young part of Gen Z. In her speech, she said, if you're not at the table, you're on the menu, which was a quote from Ann Richards, the former governor of Texas, Democratic governor of Texas, that she says had a big impact on her. And that she said in her speech that she got to give from the DNC floor for about one minute.

she meant if you're not at the table, you're on the menu to mean if you're not registered to vote, then you're up for consumption. If you're not making your voice heard, then somebody else is going to cannibalize your, your wishes. And like, you won't have a voice, right? Your seat at the table is your vote is your participation in civic engagement. And of course,

That got misappropriated where some folks on the more contrarian side of the Palestinian liberation talk radio that we have on TikTok were saying, oh, Olivia was saying that because the uncommitted movement didn't have a speaking spot at the DNC. Obviously, she was saying that they're on the menu. And I was like, you guys, that's like a real stretch.

but you know what I'm not here to get involved everybody can interpret what they hear the way that they want to but that is sort of the nonsense-iness where there's going to be some people who came out of this convention who were looking for stuff to be wrong because they're so deeply uncomfortable with happiness with with hope when we have happiness and hope we're at risk of getting our feelings hurt when we're angry and contrarian well we saw this all coming and I think it's

breaking, creating a healing for people where they can feel comfortable having hope. And I think that's what the DNC did overall. Many respected activists will tell you hope is key to doing the work and to making progress. Hope and joy are critical pieces of fighting fascism, of gaining, of advancing your rights in a movement.

And look, I know that a lot of people are brought to politics through pain. I understand that completely. I myself feel in many ways that that was the case for me. But that doesn't mean that stomping on the joy of others is productive if you actually want changes to happen. And I think that there's a Nancy Pelosi quote. That's a quote, Nancy Pelosi. The first thing you have to decide to do is that you want to win.

And when you focus on what is going to be the optimal result for my cause, what will get me closer to that goal? And do everything you can to achieve that, I guess...

You know, that's how you end up like Nancy Pelosi. And I mean, that was the conversation behind the scenes the whole time is like this struggle that young people are having with wanting to elect Harris, wanting to get on the joy train, wanting to break themselves of this contrarian like doom scroll, but also feeling like, oh, but if I do that, I might not be, I might get criticized by the far left or I might get trolled by some of the contrarian TikToks.

And I'm like, you got to just break it up. But we have to get her elected to hold her accountable. We can't hold her accountable before November 5th. You know, there's always going to be people criticizing. And if you're not ready to get on the joy train, that doesn't mean you have to be on the hater train. Right. Yeah. Have people heard of saying nothing? Say nothing. I understand that as someone who gets on the microphone every day. But yeah, I think that this is I think joy was a theme and the story of the convention. And that will be the story historically.

It has been very refreshing to see the truly big tent that is the Democratic Party. And for there to be a moment when everyone sort of understands, like, we are working towards one vision. And that vision was, they kept repeating this phrase on night four, the best of America, the promise of America, the opportunity, returning to these values that we are in this together.

We have compassion for each other. We look out for each other. I'm still stunned by that anecdote of Tim Walls taking on an extra job coaching middle school sports so that he could pay for the lunch debt of a student in his school. That is just such exemplary behavior that you can't help but look at something like that and you're like,

We should all be sort of approaching life in this way. And maybe we could get back to a place where we can have a more democratic, less polarized country.

Okay, how weird does it feel to be called someone's fiancé? The first time you hear it, you do a double take. Your heart kind of flutters. And before you know it, you go from, let's enjoy this moment, to, we're planning a fall wedding! That's where Zola comes in. Zola has everything you need to plan your wedding in one place and have fun along the way.

From free planning tools like a budget tracker and website to a venue and vendor discovery tool that matches you with your dream team, everything on Zola is designed to make your wedding journey as easy as possible. And with invites that can be completely customized and a wedding registry packed with gifts you actually want, Zola takes you from save our date to thanks so much without breaking a sweat.

From getting engaged to getting married, Zola has everything you need to plan your wedding in one place. Start planning at Zola.com. That's Z-O-L-A dot com. Do you want to stay up to date on the news but find it stressful and also you don't have any time? We got you. The Morning Announcement is a daily podcast from Betches Media that's here to help you make sense of the chaotic world and its nonstop headlines.

I'm Sammy Sage, and I'll fill you in on the biggest news of each day, delivered to you in five minutes with some light, snarky commentary. The Morning Announcements was also the winner of the People's Choice Podcast Award for News and Politics in 2023. So tap the banner to listen to new episodes of The Morning Announcements on Spotify. This is the sound of your ride home with dad after he caught you vaping. Awkward, isn't it?

Most vapes contain seriously addictive levels of nicotine and disappointment. Know the real cost of vapes. Brought to you by the FDA. In her speech...

Though it was the perfect amount of time, it was 38 minutes. They say that your ideal speech is between 17 and 40 minutes. And I think that that 37, 38 minutes is where we really needed that much time from her. Didn't droll on. It was a tight set. And I think here's the other thing. I think if you were listening to the speech and you thought every single word was for you, you may have had a couple pockets of disappointment. But just like the right wing can do dog whistles, so can the left.

And one of the things that I heard a lot of people think was very controversial was when she said, and we will continue to have the most lethal fighting force in history. Now, to me and Miltok, I was like, okay, good. I know that she's saying that because one, that's a quote from the military. That's the Navy SEALs like unofficial slogan. And that's,

between them and the 82nd Airborne, they go back and forth on who the most lethal fighting force is. And you got to remember, like, there are different things that bring people pride. And this is for better or worse, the way that some people see strength. And so when she said that,

To me, that was that she was in on the lingo of the military and military families and the way that we talk, right? And so a lot of folks were like, shook. They were like, I can't believe she said that. And I'm like, I can't believe she said that. She knows it, right? And so there were little things that she said that she moved off of quickly, but those little dog whistles will stick for people. And for folks who think that a Democratic president or that a female president would be weak on the military or couldn't be a strong commander in chief, she used their words

as aggressive and raw and kind of as they are so that they would hear those words coming out of her mouth. Yeah. As again, an outsider, I found lethal to be kind of a, Ooh, what? Use that word. What a choice. Those are our words. Those are our words. Right. I would call myself a natural pacifist. Like I'm never one to be like pro anymore. No.

And I know that that's probably ignorant because I know some like I what I understand is that that language is necessary to keep us. That's what keeps our like us safe. I don't mean like our southern border. I mean, like that's what keeps America in the stance that it is and that that is important because she needed to make clear to many voters that she was going to be just as strong and just as tough and hold the line as they believe Trump will. So she needed to have a few people.

pieces in her speech. And you know what? I don't even think she necessarily doesn't believe it. She is a person who is out for justice. And I'm sure that she believes that if people want to kill Americans or want to take down America, that she should be doing every single thing she can in with the power of the American military to prevent that and to keep Americans safe.

And when you put it like that, I'm like, okay, so she is projecting the strength that she needs to project. Like, I'm not going to nitpick. She also needs to use the words that other countries use, right? Like North Korea seeks to have the most lethal fighting force in the world. Russia will claim to have the most lethal fighting force in the world. We actually do have it. We're the guy. We're the guy you're afraid of. We're the one you don't want getting involved. Right.

And so – and to folks who are Gen X and older, I think hearing that was a little bit of like – she talked to the gamer boys with this one. She was talking to the mill talk heads and she was talking to people who will say things like we need to put warheads on foreheads, right? Like they're – I know it's gross. This is a woman's show. But like for certain people – Not for the women. Not for the women. It's just not my thing.

It's not your thing, but to some folks- I understand that I have the safety and prosperity that I have because of that. And there are some things that we do to break the brains of people so that they can engage in this kind of conduct and warfare, which is ugly and horrible. But her using their words made a lot of people feel seen. And I think-

puts down this idea that she would be a weenie on the military, right? She used very strong, very masculine, very in the culture words. And that's why I think it shocked most of the audience because they're not used to hearing stuff like that. But if you're any part of a military family, then you've heard that stuff. And you're like, that's right. That's something we're proud of. That's something we strive for because that's something other countries try to claim to intimidate us. And the fact is like, no.

That and don't – if in her debate speech she says don't touch the boats, that's going to be how I really know she's listening to Mill Talk because that's our other thing, like don't touch America's boats. Because right now in the Red Sea, they're bombing our boats and they're hitting our containers and stuff. And so what our Navy will say is like you touch our boats, you die. And like that's sort of the joke. But if she's saying it, then it kind of makes it seem like she's in on the joke. I feel like I'm having to really hold hands and walk us down this path then.

Well, we need this. What about Do Not Come? Is that... That was specific to J.D. Vance and the Couches, I think. I think that was preemptive. Oh, no.

No, but I think there's so many things that she was saying that she said in the plain language of people who will listen to a soundbite. This was very clip worthy. I mean, she knew it's almost like she knows that a TikTok and a YouTube short and a reel can all be one minute and 30 seconds because all her little clips were under a minute or a minute, 30 seconds. They were perfect for social media.

I think it was a, I think it was an incredibly strong speech. It was hard to, it was hard to process it fully in the room, which is why I'm glad we're doing this now because it was a very strong all business speech. Not a lot of lovey dovey. I mean, there was enough, enough in there that was like touching and empathic and made you feel connected to her. You know, she started with her story, but the story wasn't about, it wasn't like bullshit.

It was like, my parents came here. They worked their way. My mother says, you never half-ass anything. She said, you, you know, her, her father told her like, always run. Don't be afraid. Her mother kept them close. She has a solid family of parents and godparents and adoptive parents. And she understands community and she's a wonderful,

She has lived a life that could look like so many other people's. And then she talked about how she wants to create that for other people and how she will do that and how that is the promise of America and that we deserve to believe in that again. The only question I think is whether this is a moment or a movement, because I am so grateful that Biden stepped aside, not just because I don't think he could have won, but because this

And we've seen it opened up this bottleneck of democratic talent, of people who are aligned fundamentally with this party.

and look like the people in the room and are inclusive and don't sound like they're kind of full of shit when they're talking about feeling badly for any marginalized group, you know, and they understand this, this new culture. And she has such a chance to take advantage of it and to solidify our democracy and to make, to bring the policies that Americans broadly want, abortion, gay rights, climate change,

protection, gun safety laws. But also like homeownership, the $25,000 credit, building 30 million new single family houses. This is our regular stuff. I'm so glad someone told her to focus on that because I actually think that part of the nihilism that young people feel has to do with the lack of homeownership. Something about having a home and it's not just like the house, it's the permanent

settling, where you are investing in a community. You're saying, I'm going to stay in this community. I'm going to raise children here or I'm not. I'm just going to live here and I'm going to be friends with my neighbors and I'm going to contribute to this. And this is going to be my bakery. And this is going to be my coffee shop. This is my special occasion restaurant. This is my football team I go see on Friday nights. This is like my permanent, like that sense of permanence. People can't invest in the future. They're

And I think this also is a lot of the like, nobody wants to work anymore. Yeah, people don't want to work if they don't feel like they're going to be able to get anywhere. So I think people would work a lot harder if they did feel like there was an opportunity, like they could settle and have a comfortable life where they don't have to worry about

medical issues bankrupting them or how their insurance policy could go up by $500 next year. And that was, you know, that was in Michelle Obama's speech. It was like, it's not about making everyone even. It's about making sure everyone can have enough. And that's better for everybody. And that's what we heard from Emily Tish Sussman when she came upstairs too and talked about

She owns, you know, the Gotham soccer team. She's a woman of great means. And I was like, why are you a Democrat? And she was like, because the Democrats allow more money to circulate to regular people who can come and buy tickets, popcorn, peanuts, and parking. And I want that. Like as a business owner, as a restaurant owner, as anything, you need people to have money in their pockets to walk around and buy stuff and enjoy things. It's also a good thing for wealthy people to be part of the Democratic Party because there is a pro-social mentality

message sent when people are willing to vote, quote unquote, against their obvious financial interests. Because if every person who is a Democrat is not of means, if you want to call it that, it's

It almost incentivizes people to be selfish. It's like everyone's being selfish. So why wouldn't I also like do that? That's the normal thing. All my friends are doing it. All the people at the club vote that way. Like I know a lot of people who get into arguments in their elite rich circles because they're Democrats. And it should not be that the norm is that you have to be selfish. It should be that you give back.

to the country that gave you so much. It's the difference between long-term and short-term thinkers, right? Like I would think that, I think Emily Tish Sussman is a long-term thinker. I think everybody who was at the Democratic Party is a long-term thinker. And you look at someone like Elon Musk who makes decisions for five minutes from now, he's a rich man, but he's a foolish rich man, just like

Donald Trump is a strong man, but he's a weak man. Like these, they make these short term decisions to just advance themselves one space further, even if they know that they'll have the whole board flipped on them later in the game. They don't care. Well, they're betting that it won't be right.

There was a lot with that. That was fantastic. And I think something that I've seen over the weekend that I really loved is, you know how like while we were in the room and they would start chanting USA, USA, I at first on day one and two, I found myself like getting nervous because I thought protesters were there. I thought,

Because it was such a right-wing thing to like hear America, America. And I was like, oh, did something happen? But then no, it was us reclaiming patriotism. And then in Florida, I have seen two different trucks on TikTok now who are trying to spread this message and make this trend where they have big pickup trucks with Harris flags.

that say, fuck Trump, the way that the Trump trucks used to look. Taking back my neighbors who had up a progress flag. I came back from the DNC. They had up an American flag. We're putting up an American flag. We took back camo. We saw people dressed like cowboys in the DNC and country western. I mean, we're taking back all the things they tried to appropriate as American, and they are furious.

I have been waiting for this to happen. And also, I'm also just getting visually used to the of seeing like a giant mass of red, white and blue and it not being a Trump person. And I'm so excited because they should never have had patriotism. Well, now we have the hats, too, right? Because now we have the cool Harris Walls hats. So that MAGA hat thing we got. She gave us everything. She gave us everything we felt had been taken away from us.

including a seat at the table, including to be heard, including to platform stories that normally were pushed into the dark because let's be honest, male politicians were deeply uncomfortable with conversations about sexual assault, abortion, period, equity, like all this kind of stuff. Women make up 51% of the population and we don't get nearly that amount of attention because a lot of people who are in control of the narratives are uncomfortable with saying things like tampon. I feel like when we did the State of the Union, we were talking about

she say abortion? Will he say abortion? Now,

It's all up there, yeah. Take a shot every time they say abortion, you're drunk. It was really a wonderful time. I was glad she included – some people didn't like this either, but I did like this. I'm glad that she said things like, I'm not going to be a Democratic president. I'm a president for all Americans and there is space for you in this movement and whatnot because – and I thought that that was kind of silly. Of course she should say that and it's true. If we go back to my friend Meghan McCain who doesn't feel invited to the Democratic Party – Oh.

Should we send her an invite? I'm working on it, though. Should I get my calligraphy pen out? Please do, Sammy. Please do, Sammy. Double card stock. Yes, thick card stock. Maybe some stickers in there, too. But there's a lot of folks who feel like it's not for them. And I hope that you did open the door to making people feel like it is for them. And to go back to Florida, which is my barometer for everything, talking to Pop and...

and me, Ma, and seeing what they think down there, there is a change in attitude where her neighbor, my mom's neighbor, came over who's a super Trumper and she's like, I can't believe you allow your daughter to go to the TNC. And she's like, first of all, my daughter's 41 years old. Second of all, you're so weird. You're still supporting Trump. Even after all this, like, what is going on with you? What do you mean, control her? Like, is that what you do? Like, that's not what we do. And my dad was like, get off my fucking lawn. She's going to vote for who she wants for. And I'm going to vote for Harris just to piss you off, Joe. So I feel like we're

We're working on the villages is doing, you know, golf cart rallies for Harris. I feel like we're turning the corner on making people feel included and like it is American to support your neighbor, to build community and to be somebody who'll push you out of snowbank. The tent is big. The tent is big. So that's our recap on the DNC. I'm sure that I will find more footage on my camera as Sammy will throughout the week and be posting that to our socials.

That's the plan. That's the plan. I mean, and we're already, I cannot believe we only have two months left. I was talking to my wife. I'm like, babe, for the next few months, I'm not going to be home. But then after November, hopefully we'll be in a safe place. Okay, just let me save democracy between now and then. And she's like, you damn well better. So we're going to take a quick break while we organize our plans for the debate because we're not stopping here. We might do an episode every day from now until November 5th. You never know.

We will be back with LaFonza Butler, the senator from California, and Sammy's incredible interview with her.

This is an ad for BetterHelp. Welcome to the world. Please, read your personal owner's manual thoroughly. In it, you'll find simple instructions for how to interact with your fellow human beings and how to find happiness and peace of mind. Thank you, and have a nice life. Unfortunately, life doesn't come with an owner's manual. That's why there's BetterHelp Online Therapy. Connect with a credentialed therapist by phone, video, or online chat. Visit BetterHelp.com.

Visit BetterHelp.com to learn more. That's BetterHelp.com. Overnight, Dunkin's Pumpkin Spice Coffee has sent folks into a cozy craze. I'm Lauren LaTulip reporting live from home in my hand-knit turtleneck that my nana made me. Mmm, cinnamon-y.

The Home with Duncan is where you want to be. Max Bankman, I'm the new doctor. Welcome aboard the Odyssey. ABC Thursdays. This ship is heaven. We're tending to our past with our dreams. I'm in. From 9-1-1 executive producer Ryan Murphy comes a splashy new drama on a luxury cruise ship with Joshua Jackson and Don Johnson. It's your job to keep everyone alive. She's in V-fit. One, two, three. Clear. Clear.

I have a pulse. You're going to be okay. Dr. Odyssey, Thursdays, 9, 8 central on ABC and stream on Hulu. We are so excited to be joined today by Senator LaFonza Butler of California. Thank you so much for joining us, Senator. Thank you for having me. Thank you. We are live from the DNC, night four. What are you most looking forward to tonight?

You know, I think there's going to be such excitement out on that floor. It's been three days of just continued elation and joy. I'm looking forward, of course, to the vice president's acceptance speech. She is...

I believe, going to knock it out of the park. It's going to be the best performance that she's given. And she's going to tell the American people who she is. I have no doubt. Speaking of who she is, you are a longtime early supporter of the vice president since, you know, her when she was D.A., I believe. She's D.A., running for attorney general. Yes. And I've been watching.

Kamala Harris for many years. You know, I'm a New Yorker, but I know a star when I see one. And I wonder, what was it for you that, you know, before she was who she is now, what did you see in her and what drew you to her? Yeah, sort of like you said, right? I know a star when I see one. It is, you know, her heart is her star.

It is what guides her in all conditions and situations. And that's the thing that I have found to be like consistent about her leadership at every opportunity. And so I am excited for the American people to get to know the heart that I know, the star that is meeting this moment, but most importantly, the leader who's ready and prepared to lead our country forward.

Absolutely. Are there any stories or anecdotes or early memories you have of young Kamala Harris that stick out to you and really exemplify who she is? You know, I know we all hear the lore, but, you know, you've known her.

Before, you know, she thought anyone was necessarily really looking that closely. And I find that those are really the most interesting, compelling stories about people. Yeah. You know, yesterday, yesterday, Monday, Monday, when I spoke on a convention floor, there's a photo that was put up of the vice president and my daughter.

And, you know, the best of the vice president I always see sort of manifested when she's around other young people. And, you know, she is she has known my daughter since she was itty bitty. And now she is not so itty bitty about to be 10.

And, you know, she and Nyla have been having these sort of conversations about leadership and growing up. And every time we would see each other, they would have this exchange. And so we got to a point probably like a year ago and the vice president was giving her her usual, you know, you're going to be great. Don't ever ask for permission kind of, you know, leadership pep talks.

And my daughter has just sort of gotten back to the age now where she's like, I got it, Ms. Kamala. So it is who she is. She is just consistently who she is. And that's the thing that my daughter has gotten to know as well. They love being around each other when they get the opportunity to do that. And the vice president is always just willing to pour into young people at every chance she gets.

She really is. How are you feeling about bringing Nyla to vote for her? That must be really, really special. You know, it's interesting. I vote by mail. Oh, you're going to fill out the bubble together? It's a little anticlimactic in that way.

But maybe we'll take the, we'll go over. Like, we'll go over to a polling location. I actually hadn't thought about it. But I do want her to be able to, she loves getting the stickers in the mail. Yeah, you gotta get the sticker.

But I haven't thought about my voting plan, but that actually may be a good opportunity. Yeah, I mean, I asked because, I mean, when I was really young, like before I was 10, until I was a teenager, my mom would always take me to vote with her. And, you know, there wasn't really vote by mail, but those were very formative experiences for me. And I didn't even...

really understand why this was so important to my mother and why she made such a big deal about it, especially growing up in like the 90s. You take these kind of things for granted a lot of times. And

I really feel that that childhood experience was very, very formative for me. It definitely was formative for me. I can remember my first time going with a grown-up. I went with my uncle to go vote. And it was like at the, his polling location was like at the mall across the street.

across from his home. And I have taken Nyla, we have sort of gone back and forth. There's some years that we vote at the kitchen table, particularly like during COVID. And she got used to the, you know, voting by mail and sitting down with us and us doing it all as a family. I also have taken her in person. And it's a little tricky because like she wants to touch the voting. And like, I want, let me vote for you. Like, no, no, you can't do that. You're not allowed to do that. Exactly.

But it is, it's fun. It is an experience to share. And hopefully it, you know, is a lasting one for her about the importance of civic participation. Well, I'm sure when Auntie Kamala is giving you the advice, you're going to, you have a good mentor. Yeah. A mentor and a good example. Yeah.

In terms of your own upbringing into politics and you were a union organizer, I think that's something that a lot of people, that is maybe mystifying to people, is how does organizing actually happen? It's a catch-all phrase and it sounds like, okay, we'll call people or we'll make a list of all the people. Can you give a little bit more...

like detail about what actually goes into the process of organizing. How do you find people? How do you approach them? How do you cultivate a team that,

can make the organizing happen? It's different depending on conditions, right? Like, so, you know, organizing in a non-union workplace is how I started my career. And it really entails, you know, trying to figure out who all works there. But the secret is really not... The trick is really try to find the most important, the center piece to the social life.

of the workplace, right? And so with that person, you know you can get the birthday list.

because that's the person that's always giving everybody birthday cards, or you can get the schedule for the largest department. And then you really, it's an adventure, right? Like you as an organizer are trying to find the address or the phone number to talk with these folks, or if you're able to get the social center, having that person go and take you to meet people, sort of cold. And you're asking these folks to put...

their livelihood on the line. They face potentially getting fired by organizing their union. But once you're able to meet enough of the workforce, then you really do create a committee. It's really called an organizing committee. And then, you know, as you're talking about that, it's interesting because I feel like there's almost like a little bit about understanding like the high school cafeteria map. You know, like who are the people who are

going to be influential or just not even needing to be influential. They're just leading and they're people follow them. Sure. And yeah, I mean, organizing a workplace. What about organizing, you know, to get a ballot initiative? Is that different than union organizing? I guess it's different. It's different. It

- It is a little bit different, but you've gotta, there is the importance of building stakeholder buy-in and support that where there are similarities, right? If we wanna put a ballot measure, you wanna make sure that you have people who are gonna endorse your ballot measure, or validators, right? If you want labor to endorse, if you want the teachers to endorse, if you want other sort of nonprofit organizations to endorse, you gotta go out and build those relationships and do that work.

Right. But but in California, a lot of the signature gathering is done by people whose job it is. They're the business of signature gathering, which is has become quite the industry in California. Exactly. Exactly.

Exactly. I would love to see like a shorter campaign cycle just to see what happens to that industry. But the beauty of local politics, though, is when when it really when policy really does meet the everyday life of people. And you're not talking about, you know, patriarchy.

paid petition gatherers. You're talking about neighbors talking to neighbors. And they do go out and do that kind of organizing. Who do I know at the local Baptist church or the Catholic church or running a PTA meeting, right? And so it is at the local level can be quite similar. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely there's

And that is what I feel like where true grassroots comes from. If you can't get someone to be interested and be like, I'm going to also help you find more people, then it's not really a movement. And maybe it's not...

what the people want. What do you do in terms of multiple interests within a movement or a group or a union chapter? How do you manage those types? Let's say you have multiple different constituencies. How do you approach bridging those gaps?

I mean, it happens every day in collective bargaining, right? There's, you know, you create this bargaining committee to help to be the voice for their coworkers in negotiating a contract. And they don't always see eye to eye in terms of what are the most important things for us to win and to negotiate or what is the right settlement point.

To bring back to the workers for consideration and for a vote. And so, look, I think it's always about trust. Are you able to build the relationship where members trust, when workers trust your judgments?

and your recommendation. And there's always just gonna be multiple sort of points of view. And so it's about making the case, very much like I think the vice president is gonna do tonight, right? Like she is gonna make her case to the American people. She's gonna collect all her facts and communicate to the jury. It's about collecting all the facts, communicating to the workers.

And frankly, given your best professional recommendation, but at the end of the day, it's their lives. They've got to make these decisions and understand the consequences that can be associated with that. In the context of labor, it could mean going on a strike, but it could be that those workers are prepared to face those consequences. But it does the foundational elements of trust, communications, clarity, and understanding consequences. Great advice. Yeah.

So just to close out, something that I found very interesting about your bio is that you famously took Dianne Feinstein's seat when she passed away. And you are not interested in running for reelection. And, you know, I don't think there's anything wrong with that at all. But it is very at odds with the way a lot of people look at, I call it power maxing. Sure. Like they just need to hang on.

Like, you have to pry their job from their cold, dead hands. Or as Dana Ness might call it, dead gay hands. And it's very much, and I always wonder, I'm like, you can still be powerful. You don't have to be in this seat. Yeah.

Or you don't have to be in the highest position. And so you seem to really understand power and how it's wielded. And yet you are in a position where you're one of the probably 200 most powerful people in America. And you're like, you know what? I'm not going to do this again.

Why don't you want to do it again? It's interesting. So if you start from your premise, right, I don't believe that titles connote power, right? You can have the title of senator and just, you know,

Ride the bench. Exactly. And so it's about how you choose to invite others to be a part of what you're trying to do that actually builds power. Right. And so I think that for me, understanding that I can have power no matter the title that I have, as long as I understand that it is something to be used on behalf of others. Right.

and in partnership with others. It doesn't matter what office I do that in, because of the people of California and Governor Gavin Newsom, I will have the title of Senator forever.

And I can go off and use that title to help build power for working families in so many ways across the spectrum of my professional, next professional life. So I'm excited about figuring out new ways to do that. - I'm excited to see what you do. And I love that you view it that way.

find it so refreshing and it's super rare. And in the words of Tim Walz, we don't acquire political capital to bank it. We acquire it to spend it for the people who voted for us. That's right. And it seems that that is very much what, you know, your mindset. Thank you so much, Senator Butler. This has been a wonderful, wonderful conversation. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Of course.

I just adore that LaFonza Butler. I think it was such a great decision to put her in as the senator when Senator Feinstein died in office because, again, these people will not leave office. And I love that she's not running for office because she said, like, no, it's a fair fight. She was just kind of stepping in to help people out. And I learned so much from her. So I'm excited about that. We'll see you guys on Thursday for our interview with Mallory Morrow. Until next time, I'm V Spear. I'm Sammy Sage. And this is American Fever Dream.

American Fever Dream is produced and edited by Samantha Gatzik. Social media by Candice Monega and Bridget Schwartz. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Betches News and follow me, Sammy Sage at Sammy and V at Under the Desk News. And of course, send us your emails to AmericanFeverDream at Betches.com. Betches.