• We’re officially fewer than 50 days out from Election Day. While most of the attention has been on the five states that decided the 2020 race for President Joe Biden – Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona — there’s another state that went for former President Donald Trump that Democrats are putting back in play this year: North Carolina. Trump won the state by a little more than a point four years ago, but polls now show Harris has a chance of becoming the first Democrat since Barack Obama in 2008 to turn the state blue. Anderson Clayton, chair of the state Democratic Party, joins us to talk about what Harris needs to do to win North Carolina in November.
• And in headlines: The FBI is investigating another apparent assassination attempt targeting former President Trump, Republican Vice Presidential Nominee J.D. Vance seemed to admit to making up racist stories about Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats in Ohio, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will retaliate against the Yemen-based Houthi militia after the group claimed responsibility for launching a missile into the country.

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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Monday, September 16th. I’m Jane Coaston. 

Tre’vell Anderson: And I’m Tre’vell Anderson and this is What a Day. 

Jane Coaston: Now let’s start with today’s news. [music break]

[clip of Rafael Barros] Former president Donald Trump is safe and unharmed following a protective incident shortly before 2 p.m. on Sunday at Trump International Golf Club at West Palm Beach. 

Jane Coaston: The FBI is investigating another apparent assassination attempt targeting former President Donald Trump. Sunday, Trump was playing golf at a course he owns in Florida when Secret Service agents saw a man pointing an AK style rifle through a fence. The agents were four to 500 yards ahead of the former president. Here’s Rafael Barros again. He’s a special agent with the Secret Service speaking at a press conference following the incident. 

[clip of Rafael Barros] The U.S. Secret Service personnel opened fire on a gunman located near the property line, and this matter is under investigation. 

Jane Coaston: Despite shots fired by the Secret Service, the gunman was not hit and fled in his car, but was quickly apprehended by law enforcement. Trump was safely removed from the scene. Vice President Kamala Harris said on X that she is, quote, “Glad he is safe. Violence has no place in America.” In another textbook example of saying the quiet part out loud. Donald Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, pretty much admitted to making up racist stories about Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio, to make some sort of point. Here he is speaking with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday. 

[clip of J.D. Vance] The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. If I have to, if I have to– 

[clip of Dana Bash] But it wasn’t just the meme [?]–

[clip of J.D. Vance] –create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do, Dana, because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast. 

Jane Coaston: Vance then had this awkward exchange with Bash. 

[clip of Dana Bash] You just said that you’re creating a story. 

[clip of J.D. Vance] We ought to be talking about public policy. [pause]

[clip of Dana Bash] Sory you just said that you’re creating the story. 

[clip of J.D. Vance] What’s that, Dana?

[clip of Dana Bash] You just said that this is a story that you’ve created. 

[clip of J.D. Vance] Yes. 

[clip of Dana Bash] So the eating dogs and cats– 

[clip of J.D. Vance] We are creating we– 

[clip of Dana Bash] –thing is not accurate.

[clip of J.D. Vance] We are creating. We are. Dana it comes from firsthand accounts from my constituents. 

Jane Coaston: I promise that uncomfortably long silence from Vance, we didn’t add that in post. Since Donald Trump repeated the false claims about migrants eating pets during the presidential debate last week. The city of Springfield has had to deal with a series of bomb and shooting threats. Schools, hospitals, and city buildings have all been targeted. Springfield’s mayor has said he believes there’s a direct connection between the bomb threats and the conspiracy theories spread by Trump and Vance. 

Jane Coaston: [clip plays of Benjamin Netanyahu speaking in Hebrew] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will retaliate against the Yemen based Houthi militia after the group claimed responsibility for launching a missile into the country. He referenced a previous retaliatory attack on a Yemeni port saying, quote, “They should have known by now that we charge a heavy price for any attempt to harm us.” A spokesman for the Houthis, an Iran backed militia, says they launched a, quote, “new hypersonic ballistic missile” early Sunday morning and warned of more strikes to come. No casualties have been reported as a result of the attack, which marks the longest range missile to ever hit Israel. 

Jane Coaston: [clip of Pope Francis speaking in Italian plays] Pope Francis is telling Catholic voters to choose, quote, “the lesser of two evils,” saying, quote, “Both are against life, whether it’s the one who is pushing away migrants or the one that kills children,” though he didn’t refer to either candidate by name. In a press conference Friday, the pope called Trump’s stance on migrants, quote, “cruelty” and “a grave sin” while labeling abortion as, quote, “assassination.” He said he can’t be the one to decide which candidate voters choose. But he did urge American Catholics to vote in the election and said they should follow their conscience. In the 2020 election, Catholic voters were split almost evenly, with Biden earning 50% and Trump earning 49% of the vote. According to Pew, though 61% of American Catholics believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. And that’s the news. 

Tre’vell Anderson: So, Jane, I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but we are fewer than 50 days out from Election Day. 

Jane Coaston: I also cannot believe that. That is too few days and also too many days. I don’t like the number of days. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Well, some ballots are already in the mail. And while most of the attention has been on the five states that decided the 2020 race for Joe Biden, that’s Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Arizona. There’s another state that went for former President Donald Trump that Democrats are putting back in play this year, North Carolina. 

Jane Coaston: Four years ago, Trump won the state by a little more than a point. And while it looked like he was going for the three peat since he also won North Carolina in 2016, that’s all changed since Vice President Harris entered the race. Polls now show North Carolina is right up there alongside Pennsylvania and Georgia in the toss up column. And we know the Harris campaign thinks it has a shot at making her the first Democrat to win the state since Barack Obama did back in 2008 because it was one of the first places she went to campaign after last week’s debate. She made two stops while she was there on Thursday, first in Charlotte, then in Greensboro, where more than 17,000 people turned out to see her speak. 

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] America is ready for a new way forward, and we are ready for a new generation of leadership. That is optimistic. Optimistic about what we can do for our country together. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Crooked producer Elijah Cone was at that rally and he talked to nearly two dozen people there about why they came out to support Harris. For a lot of them, there was one issue in particular motivating them. 

[clip of rally goer Gianna] Definitely reproductive rights um and abortion. 

[clip of rally goer Shereen Min] So reproductive rights and being able to allow women and physicians to make health care decisions is really important to me. 

[clip of rally goer Chris Ryan] A woman’s right to choose is maybe number one for me. 

[clip of rally goer Larry] Abortion rights. 

[clip of rally goer Bonnie] Women’s rights, of course. Uh. Top of mind for me. 

Tre’vell Anderson: That was in order. Rally goers Gianna, Shereen Min, Chris Ryan, Bonnie and Larry. Reproductive rights is a big issue in the state. North Carolina currently bans almost all abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Republicans also have a supermajority in the state legislature, so they were able to override Democratic Governor Roy Cooper when he vetoed that abortion ban. And the Republican running for governor in North Carolina, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, has said repeatedly that he wants to make the ban even stricter. 

Jane Coaston: Reproductive rights is also an issue that plays to Harris’s strengths in this election. That’s giving voters like Gianna hope that Harris can win North Carolina and help other Democrats win down ballot, too. 

[clip of rally goer Gianna] I’ve never felt this passionate about a presidential candidate in my life, and I’m so excited. I can’t imagine coming here for like any other candidate. There’s just something about her that just inspires me and makes me feel so excited to vote. And I don’t know. I just feel so patriotic. I’ve never really felt like this before. 

Jane Coaston: Same for Bryan Clark, who was also at the rally and who says he can feel the mood shifting in the state. 

[clip of rally goer Bryan Clark] Yeah, it’s been invigorating. It’s really driven my friends and I, to kind of get more involved and really try to make this happen. 

Jane Coaston: So for more on what Democrats will need to do to flip North Carolina blue, I spoke with the chair of the state party, Anderson Clayton. She also happens to be the youngest state party chair in the country at just 26 years old. Here’s our conversation. Anderson Clayton, welcome to What a Day. 

Anderson Clayton: Thanks for having us. 

Jane Coaston: The last time North Carolina voted for a Democrat in a presidential election was Barack Obama in 2008, which I remember. And before that, you have to go all the way back to 1976 when Jimmy Carter won the state. I do not remember that. So what does Kamala Harris need to do to win the state this year? 

Anderson Clayton: Well, she’s got to be competing across all 100 counties in North Carolina, which is why what we’re doing right now is running a full state strategy. And the campaign’s also got to show up, which is what they’re doing. We’re expecting to see Governor Walz here in Asheville, in western North Carolina on Tuesday. And we’re also going to have some more special guest and surrogate visits this upcoming week from the campaign here as well. And really, I think that we need to make sure that we’re prioritizing the down ballot races in the state and uplifting the ability to make sure that not only do we elect a Democratic president from North Carolina, but we give Hakeem Jeffries the United States House speakership power with Don Davis’s congressional district in CD1. 

Jane Coaston: Absentee ballots are set to start going out in North Carolina later this week. They were delayed because former independent candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr successfully sued to get his name removed from the ballot to help Donald Trump. What effect does that delay having on early voting in the state? 

Anderson Clayton: We still fully expect early voting to be able to take place and start on October the 17th effectively, but we are seeing a delay and that the state Board of elections had to appeal at the federal level to make sure that there’s a waiver in place for the 45 day deadline to deliver absentee ballots to military personnel overseas. I mean, really what this is, though, is the partisanship takeover of our court systems, which is why we’re really putting a priority on our judicial races this year in North Carolina. Folks need to understand that mail in ballots were supposed to go out. And the only thing that stopped that was a Republican court of appeals overturning a lower court’s decision even after the ballots had already been printed in the state, costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in North Carolina. In Wake County alone, it’s going to cost upwards of $300,000 to reprint those ballots. The Republican takeover of our state Supreme Court and our state Court of Appeals in 2022 is what cost us this. And this year in North Carolina, we have one Supreme Court seat up this year with Justice Allison Riggs, who’s a Democratic seat that we want to keep on the bench this year, but have the opportunity to take two court of appeals seats this year. 

Jane Coaston: Young and first time voters are going to be key to this election pretty much everywhere. You’re 26 years old, the youngest state party chair in the country. What do both campaigns miss when it comes to young voters and what they want to hear? 

Anderson Clayton: That we’re not a monolith. I think young voters are just like every other voter that you see that are coming into a ballot box. You know, they care about every issue on the ballot, too. And there are specific drivers that you’re going to see across different demographics, I think, especially right when you’re looking at universities in the UNC system like UNC Chapel Hill, who had unfortunately, you know, faced two school shooter drills this last year on their campus alone. And really looking at how gun violence prevention has played a huge impact into those students lives. But we also see so many students just carrying about the basic issues of how am I going to make sure I have a job after I graduate? And if I choose to do so in high school or in college, and making sure that they’ve got an affordable place to come back to and live. And hopefully that means in North Carolina. But really, I think that this year we have so many exciting opportunities to engage young people. That is the demographic that helped Barack Obama win our state in 2008. And Kamala Harris’s campaign in North Carolina has already hired upwards of 30 full time campus organizers across both public and private universities in the state right now. And we’ve been out working to organize and help register students on campus, make sure they know what their rights are this year, and especially that they know their student ID counts as their voting ID in North Carolina, because we also have that instituted from a Republican Supreme Court this year in the state now. 

Jane Coaston: Let’s take a break. More with the chair of the North Carolina Democrats, Anderson Clayton in a moment. But if you like our show, make sure to subscribe. Check us out on YouTube and share with your friends. We’ll be back after some ads. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: Let’s get back to our conversation with Anderson Clayton. You mentioned down ballot races and in addition to the presidential race and the judicial races you mentioned, North Carolinians will also vote for a new governor in November. And the Republican in the race, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, is um a real weirdo and giant MAGA candidate. 

Anderson Clayton: To say the least.

Jane Coaston: I love seeing your face right now I’m trying to think of like the nicest way to describe him, but he’s advocated for a total ban on abortion and was recently caught on tape reiterating that stance. He’s called LGBTQ people filth. He’s been critical of the civil rights movement while he’s also Black. He’s said really weird things about the Holocaust. Trump thinks he’s Martin Luther King on steroids. I could keep going. Most polls show him losing the race to Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein. But what does the party need to do between now and November to make sure he loses? 

Anderson Clayton: We’re not taking any voter for granted in this state, and that means we’re making sure we’re reaching out and we’re trying to knock doors. And those efforts that we have lost and won races on in North Carolina have always been on the margins. And so that means we are making sure candidates get out across the state. Josh Stein has done a very good job of making sure that he is reaching counties and emphasizing what he’s done for the communities that are in North Carolina. You can go to DOJ Delivers, which is a website right now that will tell you about all of the opioid relief money that he got back to counties this year through suing Big Pharma over the last two years in the state. And it’s important because I think a lot of people have no idea what the attorney general’s office has been able to do for them in the last four years that he’s been in office. And so it’s important for us to advocate for that. But to your point, too, Mark Robinson is a very big threat to everybody in the state. He’s bad for business, would be bad for women in North Carolina, for our health care rights, but also would be bad just in general for protecting people, which is what our governor’s office is always supposed to do in the state. 

Jane Coaston: Is Robinson dragging down the GOP in North Carolina like we saw in 2022, in Pennsylvania and Colorado and Michigan, with radical GOP candidates running against pretty normal Democrats?

Anderson Clayton: People talk a lot about Mark Robinson. It’s not just him on the ballot this year, honestly. And we’re trying to make sure that people understand it is extremism versus experience up and down the ballot this year in the state. And so you’ve got Donald Trump at the top of the ticket that’s endorsed a you know what states want to see for abortion bans and the entire United States. And I’m like, that means you’ve endorsed a Republican state supermajority in North Carolina’s legislature right now that enacted a 12 week abortion ban. He’s endorsed Mark Robinson’s potential six week abortion ban and hopeful total abortion ban if he’s to be elected governor. But so is everybody else on that ballot, Right. So is a Brad Briner who’s the Republican running for state treasurer in North Carolina right now. So is a Dave Boliek, who’s running for state auditor right now in North Carolina. Those are all Republicans that are just as dangerous and just as threatening to the people of North Carolina as the other folks like Michele Mauro, a Mark Robinson, a Hal Weatherman and a Dan Bishop are, too. And I just think it’s important because a lot of times Democrats are the party that tend not to vote all the way down the ballot. And there’s that saying, right, Democrats have got to fall in love, Republicans fall in line. And I’m I’m kind of like I need people to fall in line this year because we’ve got really great candidates that are running down that ballot. So our folks need to know about them well. 

Jane Coaston: It’s also important that folks know where to direct time and money to North Carolina. What are the best places for people to do so? 

Anderson Clayton: You can go to NCDP.org or you can honestly just google the North Carolina Democratic Party. If you’re looking for candidates right now and you’re in North Carolina and you’re like, God, I want to help educate folks about who’s on my ballot. There’s a website that we have and you can go to candidates.NCDP.org. It’s also linked on the state party website. If you put in your voting address on there, it will take you to every single candidate that’s running down ballot for the Democrats in North Carolina. We have contested 168 out of 170 state legislative seats this year. So everyone has got somebody local to vote for on the ballot, and they’re making sure that they’re fighting for good public schools in North Carolina, good access to health care in North Carolina and communities across our state so that people don’t have to leave them in order to make something of themselves. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democrats. [music break[ Let’s talk about TikTok, not what’s on your FYP, but about the politics of the platform, more specifically whether or not to ban it from app stores and networks across the United States. Unless Tiktok’s, China based parent company Bytedance sells it. Now, if you remember back to 2020, Tre’vell, a lot was going on. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Mm hmm. 

Jane Coaston: There was a global pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Stores ran out of hand sanitizer. We all watched Tiger King on Netflix for some reason. And Donald Trump promised to ban TikTok from the United States in a very Donald Trump way. 

[clip of Donald Trump] We’re looking at TikTok, we may be banning TikTok. We may be doing some other things. There are a couple of options, but a lot of things are happening. So we’ll see what happens. But we are looking at a lot of alternatives. With respect to TikTok. 

Jane Coaston: Classic Trump answer that gives you no answers except the answer that you kind of want. Now, unlike a lot of things Donald Trump wants to do in 2020 and I mean a lot of things. This wasn’t totally insane to a bunch of people. Stay with me for a second. Back in 2017, the Chinese government passed the national intelligence law, which would require companies operating in China to turn over any data that the Chinese government thinks is relevant to national security. In the case of TikTok, that data would be your data, which is collected any time you do anything with the platform or pretty much any platform. But cut to 2024. And while a lot of legislators still have big concerns with TikTok, including President Joe Biden, who signed a bill back in April that had bipartisan support requiring Bytedance to either sell Tik Tok or face a ban, Trump suddenly has no problem with everyone’s favorite way to waste 45 minutes on the treadmill. 

[clip of Donald Trump] Appreciate all your support Jeff.

[clip of Jeff Yass] Thank you. And you’ll never ban TikTok, that’s for sure. 

[clip of Donald Trump] I will never ban TikTok. 

[clip of Jeff Yass] Thank you. 

Jane Coaston: Hey, fun fact. Jeff Yass owns a healthy percentage of Bytedance. He’s also one of Trump and the GOP’s biggest donors, and the company he part owns merged with Trump’s Truth Social earlier this year. Could that be playing a role, Tre’vell? 

Tre’vell Anderson: It almost likely is. [laughing]

Jane Coaston: I mean, who can say what happens when billionaires give billions to other billionaires who are alleged billionaires? Anyway, today, a federal appeals court is hearing a lawsuit from Bytedance and a bunch of content creators who are saying that banning TikTok would curtail free speech. We’ll stay tuned. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you liked the show, make sure you subscribe. Leave a review. Enjoy TikTok while you can and tell your friends to listen. 

Tre’vell Anderson: And if you’re into reading and not just translations of the Pope like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Tre’vell Anderson. 

Jane Coaston: I’m Jane Coaston. Thanks for listening. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded by Jerik Centeno and mixed by Bill Lancz. Our associate producer is Raven Yamamoto. Our producer is Michell Eloy. We had production help today from Ethan Oberman, Tyler Hill, JoHanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters and Julia Claire. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison and are executive producer is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Collin Gilliard and Kashaka.