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