[MUSIC]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Kenan Thompson of Saturday Night Live fame was at the DNC last night sporting a big, heavy copy of the 900-page Trump-allied policy playbook, Project 2025.

Kenan Thompson: You ever seen a document that could kill a small animal and democracy at the same time?

[laughter]

Kenan Thompson: Here it is.

Brian Lehrer: There it is. Thompson briefly brought on a few people by video to whom he cited specific passages from the Project 2025 book. Here's one of those exchanges.

Kenan Thompson: You're married, correct?

Becky: I am. Me and my wife have been together for about eight years.

Kenan Thompson: Oh.

[crowd cheers]

Kenan Thompson: That's amazing. Very, very cute.

Becky: Thanks.

[laughter]

Kenan Thompson: I have got some bad news for you.

[laughter]

Becky: I hate that.

Kenan Thompson: On page 584, Project 2025 calls for the elimination of protections for LGBTQ+ Americans.

[crowd jeers]

Brian Lehrer: Kenan Thompson bringing the humor to wield the skewer, but the main event last night was Minnesota governor and vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, who talked among other things about being a teacher and a learner in his social studies classroom.

Governor Tim Walz: I wound up teaching social studies and coaching football at Mankato West High School. Go Scarlets.

[crowd cheers]

Governor Tim Walz: We ran a 4-4 defense. We played through to the whistle on every single play and we even won a state championship.

[crowd cheers]

Governor Tim Walz: Never close the yearbook, people, but it was those players and my students who inspired me to run for Congress. They saw in me what I had hoped to instill in them, a commitment to the common good, an understanding that we're all in this together, and the belief that a single person can make a real difference for their neighbors.

[applause]

Brian Lehrer: Tim Walz last night. We'll hear one more clip from his convention speech as we go. Listeners, our phones remain open for any of your reactions to Tim Walz's speech in particular. Right now, anybody originally from Minnesota or with ties to Minnesota want to weigh in on his governorship or just anybody who watched or listened to any of the convention last night or anything else from the convention? Still at 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Call or text as we talk now to Jim Newell, senior politics writer for Slate. Jim, thanks for coming on from Chicago, where I imagine you're already working around the clock on convention coverage, so welcome back to WNYC.

Jim Newell: Yes, thank you for having me, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Let me start with a political communication question. Who do you think the tone and content of this convention have been for? It's obviously been carefully designed. All this talk of joy and fighting for people's freedom and skewering Donald Trump and Project 2025 with humor and seriousness alike. Is it overwhelmingly to get the Democrats in the audience psyched or do they think this plays to swing voters as well?

Jim Newell: It kind of depends speech by speech a little bit. I think, mostly, the energy is towards keeping the Democratic coalition energized the same way they've been since Kamala Harris took over the ticket. I'm curious if there's going to be some more speeches tonight where they're going to try to broaden the message a little bit more. I'm also really curious to hear how Kamala Harris presents herself. Is she trying to just continue keeping this energy going or is she going to try to reach out to the center-right a little bit? I'm really curious how it's going to go.

Brian Lehrer: How might she reach out to the center-right as you imagine it?

Jim Newell: Well, I think you've seen in some of her ads already. She's been touting how tough she would be on border security, how she would sign the toughest border security law in decades or generations. They've been mentioning that talking point a lot. I'm curious to know if she pushes a little bit more on that.

Brian Lehrer: In that context, what do you think Walz was trying to project last night as he introduced himself to more American viewers? He was probably selected as Harris' running mate to do some of what you were just describing.

Jim Newell: Yes, especially when they had his former high school football players come on stage, I think they were trying to present this image of wholesome all-Americanists appealing a lot to, especially the Midwest and the Upper Midwest as they're looking to lock down that area of the country in the electoral college. I think that was the image they were trying to project.

Brian Lehrer: Here's another clip of Walz from last night on his transition to politics from teaching and he gets into policy in this one too.

Governor Tim Walz: There I was, a 40-something high school teacher with little kids, zero political experience, and no money, running in a deep red district, but you know what? Never underestimate a public school teacher. Never.

[crowd cheers]

Governor Tim Walz: I represented my neighbors in Congress for 12 years and I learned an awful lot. I learned how to work across the aisle on issues like growing the rural economies and taking care of veterans. I learned how to compromise without compromising my values.

[crowd cheers]

Governor Tim Walz: Then I came back to serve as governor and we got right to work making a difference in our neighbors' lives. We cut taxes for the middle class. We passed paid family and medical leave.

[crowd cheers]

Governor Tim Walz: We invested in fighting crime and affordable housing. We cut the cost of prescription drugs and helped people escape the kind of medical debt that nearly sank my family. We made sure that every kid in our state gets breakfast and lunch every day.

[crowd cheers]

Brian Lehrer: Tim Walz from his convention speech last night. Jim Newell from Slate is with us from Chicago. What kind of policy pitch did you hear Walz and, for that matter, the convention generally making to the TV viewership? That was one of the most specific kind of listings of policy items that I think I heard all week.

Jim Newell: Yes, I think that in terms of what policy pitch they're making, I think they're trying to show that, especially with Tim Walz and all the progressive legislation he signed, they're saying that, "We can make the government work for you. We can make your life better, take some of the pressure off to help you raise your kids." I think that that's what they're going for.

One thing that struck me about Tim Walz's speech, he's been getting a lot of heat, I think, from the right on some of his comments in the past. It was interesting the way he talked about IVF treatments where he's been criticized for saying that he and his family use them when they use a separate fertility treatment. It was interesting the way he walked up to the line rhetorically.

He mentioned IVF treatments and then he mentioned how personal this was for him and his family and that they had access to fertility treatments and that helped them bring a family together. He never said, "We used IVF." He said, "We had access to fertility treatments." I think it frustrates some Republican critics who think that he walks right up to the line, but they can't actually criticize him for what he says because he doesn't say it. He doesn't say anything inaccurately there.

Brian Lehrer: Right, at least he didn't last night. A week and a half ago already, you wrote in Slate that the fun honeymoon between the public and Tim Walz was expiring. I think that was partly because of maybe inaccurate or slightly over-the-line language that he used when he talked about carrying a weapon of war, which he certainly did in 24 years in the National Guard, but he said carrying a weapon of war in war when he was never deployed to war and when he cited IVF previously. The reason this is controversial is because the different technique that he and his wife actually used is not one that the anti-abortion movement objects to.

Jim Newell: Correct, yes. I do think when I wrote that a week and a half ago, he was definitely coming under major scrutiny. He still is under major scrutiny. I think it's worth pointing out that it doesn't seem to have affected his image at all. I think he's still viewed, even as people are still learning about him, as extremely popular. Even if he has put a toe over the line every now and then in some of his past statements, it doesn't seem like the American public at large is holding that against him.

Brian Lehrer: Especially compared to a candidate on the other side who lies for a living. Nancy on the Upper West Side is calling about Tim Walz's speech last night and particularly his references to their infertility treatments. Nancy, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Nancy: Good morning, Brian. That was no toe over the line. What he was speaking about was the nightmare of infertility. I've never heard a man speak so articulately, so emotionally, so beautifully about the nightmare of infertility. That's what he was talking about.

Jim Newell: Oh, yes, I fully agree. I did not think he put a toe over the line there. It was just interesting to hear how he articulated that particular sentence when he's been under scrutiny for Republicans. Yes, he did not cross over the line there. I also thought maybe one of the most powerful images of the night was his son Gus crying and saying, "That's my dad," when Tim Walz called them out.

Brian Lehrer: Another caller. Grace in Rochester, you're on WNYC. Hi, Grace.

Grace: Hi, Brian. Thanks for having me. I have a little anecdote. I was in Chicago on Sunday and I saw Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Oak Park. These are really small eight-person tours and hers was starting when mine ended. I was at the tour because my dad passed unexpectedly last year when I was 23. He was an architect who loved Frank Lloyd Wright.

Then I learned from AOC's convention speech Monday that her dad passed unexpectedly when she was in her early 20s. From internet research, I learned that he was also an architect. I thought that maybe that was some serendipitous commonality. Maybe she was on the tour that day also in honor of her father, thinking of her father. That's my contribution to the kind of joy and neighborliness that maybe some of the Democratic base is feeling right now with our leaders.

Brian Lehrer: Interesting. Thank you very much. Jim, just before we went on, the BBC was noting that the Democratic Party platform was drawn up before Biden withdrew from the race. I don't think it's been made explicit whether there are going to be any changes to the platform under Kamala Harris. We talked in the previous segment about the uncommitted movement, how unhappy the protesters and some of the delegates were that there was no Palestinian representative to speak on stage in addition to the parents of Jewish-American hostage being held in Gaza even though they did say something about Palestinian suffering in Gaza.

I read today that the group Muslim Women for Harris-Walz has decided to disband. I don't know if you can confirm that, but it goes to a policy and a platform question, whether there are going to be policy changes under Harris's leadership on the Mideast, on arms to Israel, and on anything else that was in the Joe Biden-directed Democratic platform. What can you tell us?

Jim Newell: We really don't know very much at all. I think you've seen some surrogates talking about her. They mentioned that she might be a little bit different on the Israel-Gaza war than President Biden, but we don't really know because she hasn't taken any questions about that yet. I don't think that the platform itself, I don't know if it was changed in any meaningful respect. It seems like the language in there about Israel and Gaza is pretty standard from the Democratic Party.

It absolutely supports Israel's security. It makes an absolute commitment to that. There's also an appreciation in there for the suffering and the need to get a two-state solution, but I think it's all pretty Democratic boilerplate stuff that's been around for a couple of decades. I would be curious to hear how Vice President Harris talks about Israel and Gaza in this speech tonight because she hasn't really given much to the public at all beyond her stump speech. We just don't really know though.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, I wonder if in the speech tonight--

Jim Newell: We don't really know with two months until the election, so I think there's really a lot to learn here in a very short period of time.

Brian Lehrer: Right. Maybe one challenge or one way to put the challenge for Harris tonight is, can she keep inflating the mood while convincing Americans that she can deflate the cost of living?

Jim Newell: Yes, I think that's a good way to put it. She's put out a couple of policy proposals about price gouging on groceries and she's put out a housing plan. There's still a lot to fill in though. As far as the platform itself goes, I wouldn't pay too much attention to what's in the platform overall. As soon as it's written, it tends to be put in a filing cabinet somewhere, never to be seen again. It's more about how she will articulate herself as time goes on a little bit more.

Brian Lehrer: A number of people are writing in to comment on Tim Walz's son appearance at the convention. Listener writes, "Can we talk about Gus Walz's reaction to his dad? That's a reaction that can't be scripted. He must be a truly wonderful father." Anything on Gus Walz?

Jim Newell: No, I just thought it was a very powerful moment just to watch them there and watch him pointing up and saying, "That's my dad." It looked like he was crying both when they showed him on the camera during the speech and when he saw his father afterwards. I didn't see it coming. It was pretty moving.

Brian Lehrer: Here's another caller on somebody who did take the stage last night, and then I'm going to read you another text from a listener on someone who didn't take the stage last night. Marvin in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC with Jim Newell from Slate. Hi, Marvin.

Marvin: Hi. Thank you for taking my call. I think in the question that was raised earlier about who the Democrats were trying to reach in addition to getting the base excited and bringing the rest of us out of our deep depression, the highlighted speaker of the evening other than Tim Walz was Oprah Winfrey. She made a major point of noting that she's a registered independent and specifically called out other independents to support the ticket.

A number of conservative Republicans came on to tell their fellow Republicans and conservatives that they could support Harris-Walz without renouncing their own beliefs and their own backgrounds, that this was a time to put country above party. I think that's been a theme throughout the convention as well. Just one quick other point that's worth mentioning is Harris should get an enormous amount of credit for her ability to have reshaped the whole campaign and gather the whole Democratic Party around her in such a short time, which speaks well to her executive skills and abilities and gives us more hope for a Harris presidency.

Brian Lehrer: Marvin, thank you for all of that. Yes, so that was a surprise yesterday. At least they billed it as a surprise, bringing Oprah Winfrey onto the convention stage last night. I could hear that the room was ecstatic. Do you think Oprah Winfrey moves votes in any way in 2024?

Jim Newell: I'm not entirely sure. Yes, I also noticed. I thought that was one of the more interesting parts of her speech when she said, "Take it from a political independent. This is the right decision to make." I don't necessarily know. [chuckles] I'm curious which Republican she's voted for in the past. She obviously made a big splash when she endorsed Barack Obama in 2008.

She was a very avid supporter of Governor Wes Moore, another speaker at the convention last night, from Maryland. She endorsed him and supported him for a while. I don't necessarily know if she moves Republican votes over, but I think, obviously, that's going to be a very attention-grabbing speech even as it's replayed over and over in the coming days. That was quite the get for the Harris campaign.

Brian Lehrer: That is kind of an outreach to the center-right on one level. You talked about reaching out to the center-right. You're curious to see if and in what ways Harris tries to do that tonight. Listener writes, "Reach out to the center-right? Why couldn't they let the Teamster president speak?" What's the issue there? We did see the president of the Teamsters speak at the Republican convention while not endorsing Donald Trump. Then there was a question about whether he would speak at the Democratic convention too, so apparently not?

Jim Newell: Yes, I think it's not entirely clear what's going on right there. I think the Teamsters have said that they didn't get a response to their request to speak. I don't know entirely what's happening there. It may just be that once he made the decision to speak at the RNC, he's being kind of iced out from the DNC. We'll just have to see how that plays out.

Brian Lehrer: To another point from Marvin in Brooklyn's call, how different do you think the convention has been in content from the stage from how it would have been if Biden were still the nominee?

Jim Newell: [chuckles] I don't know if it's necessarily all that different. You obviously have to make entirely new biographical spots. You bring in certain new speakers who've known you a little bit better. I think in terms of the message, it's still pretty similar. You just tout the good things that you've done, bringing down the cost of insulin. They've been touting that throughout there, some of the other changes.

When we talk about that ad that Kamala Harris did about how she'd be tough on border security and sign the toughest border law, and I think we'll probably have more speakers about that today, that's still a message that Joe Biden would want to get out there because it's probably Democrats' biggest weakness in the polls. It just seems like they've kind of shifted things here or there. It seems like Joe Biden's speech sounded an awful lot like the speech he would have given for renomination but with a few parts changed.

Brian Lehrer: Would they be talking about joy as much as they are?

Jim Newell: No, [chuckles] probably not. I don't think they would be quite as joyous because I think they'd be worried that they're going to lose. It's been very strange. I went to the RNC a month ago. Everyone there thought the election was sewn up for them. As someone covering it and looking at the polls and watching the enthusiasm, I don't know that I would have disagreed with them, but then it's been a very long month since with the switch at the top of ticket.

Now, we come to Chicago. Democrats, they do not feel like they can possibly lose the election. Not everyone, obviously, but there's a lot of enthusiasm out there. I think the rubber's going to hit the road a little bit more in the fall when there's debates and it just becomes a little bit of a grinded-out situation, but it's been very interesting this summer to go to conventions where the parties feel like they're in better shape than ever.

Brian Lehrer: Jim Newell, senior politics writer for Slate. Thanks for giving us a few minutes from Chicago today. We really appreciate it.

Jim Newell: Yes. Thank you, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Much more to come.

 

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