• Former President Donald Trump wrapped up this week’s Republican National Convention on Thursday night with the longest speech in convention history. He started with a first-person account of the attempted assassination against him last weekend. But his promised message of unity fell apart quickly as he embraced autocrats, doubled down on false claims the 2020 election was stolen, and promised the biggest deportation in history. Washington Post reporter Dylan Wells joins us from the convention while Republican political strategist Mike Madrid talks about what’s next for the Never Trump movement.
• And in headlines: The calls for President Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race continued to snowball, a federal appeals court fully blocked the Biden Administration’s student loan repayment program, and Costco is selling an emergency food kit with 150 freeze-dried and hydrated food servings with a promised shelf life of 25 years.

Show Notes:

• Read Dylan Wells, Washington Post Campaign Reporter – https://tinyurl.com/2jdwteuw
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
• Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/

TRANSCRIPT

Tre’vell Anderson: It’s Friday, July 19th, I’m Tre’vell Anderson.

Priyanka Aribindi: And I’m Priyanka Aribindi and this is What a Day the show where we are grateful that the RNC is finally over. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Yes, we were watching through our fingers the whole time like everyone else. It was not a good sight. I’m a let you know that now. 

Priyanka Aribindi: No no, no. Especially that Hulk Hogan speech. Scary scary scary stuff. I did not like it. [laughter] [music break]

Tre’vell Anderson: On today’s show, the Biden administration forgives billions more dollars in student debt. Plus, the calls are growing louder for the president to not seek reelection. 

Priyanka Aribindi: But first, former President Donald Trump capped off the Republican National Convention on Thursday night with the longest speech ever given in convention history. We watched it all, though, so you don’t have to. He started with a first person account of the attempted assassination against him last weekend. Take a listen. 

[clip of Donald Trump] It was a warm, beautiful day in the early evening in Butler Township in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Music was loudly playing and the campaign was doing really well. I went to the stage and the crowd was cheering wildly. Everybody was happy. I began speaking very strongly, powerfully and happily. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Yeah, it gave drama and theater. Just a bit. He even brought out the uniform of the rally goer, Cory Compertore, who was killed by the shooter on Saturday and hugged it. 

[clip of Donald Trump] I’m not supposed to be here tonight. Not supposed to be here. 

[clip of unidentified person] Yes you are. Yes you are. [sound of audience protesting] [crowd starts chanting] 

[clip of RNC convention crowd] Yes you are!

Priyanka Aribindi: Yes, definitely a bit of drama there at the beginning. This speech sounded very different from a typical Trump speech. It was more somber and subdued, had messages about faith. It was actually supposed to be all about unity, but that message ended up falling apart pretty quickly. At some point in the over hour and a half plus that he was speaking, Trump went off script, as he tends to do. He launched several attacks on Democrats and a barrage of unscripted grievances on immigration. He promised the biggest deportation in history, doubled down on the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, embraced autocrats across the world, called Covid the China virus. He was pretty much playing all his greatest hits. 

[clip of Donald Trump] We will return law and order to our streets, patriotism to our schools, and importantly we will restore peace, stability and harmony all throughout the world. But to achieve this future, we must first rescue our nation from failed and even incompetent leadership. We have totally incompetent leadership. This will be the most important election in the history of our country. Under the current administration, we are indeed a nation in decline. We have an inflation crisis that is making life unaffordable, ravaging the incomes of working and low income families, and crushing just simply crushing our people like never before. They’ve never seen anything like it. 

Priyanka Aribindi: I spoke earlier with Dylan Wells, a campaign reporter for The Washington Post, who was in the room for the speech. Obviously, this was Trump’s first speech since the assassination attempt against him. I started by asking her how the crowd reacted to his story. 

Dylan Wells: How passionate Trump supporters normally are is amplified even further by the shooting over the weekend. I mean, whether it was the mock ear bandages we saw on the floor, if it was the newly made merch showing Trump with his fist up at that rally, there was the fight, fight, fight chants that they kept having in the convention hall. It just really has taken everything that was already at an extreme up a further notch in terms of support. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Right. 

Dylan Wells: The thing that stood out most to me about Trump’s speech tonight was the portion where he was talking about the assassination attempt on Saturday. He came out from the jump and said that this was going to be the only time he talked about it. He said it was too emotional, too painful to discuss. And I’ve been in the convention hall on the floor all four days, and it’s been a pretty raucous environment. You have people dancing, chanting, and at that moment the entire convention hall was silent. People were rapt as he was telling that story. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Right. 

Dylan Wells: And as I looked around at the delegates around me, they were just staring, kind of in shock at the fact that he was detailing what had happened to him. The most in-depth first person account that we have heard from the president. Of course, there were some of the usual Trumpisms, elaborations about crowd size, even while he was discussing that very serious attack. So I’d say that moment of his speech really stood out being there in the room. But then after that, he did kind of revert to, you know, the normal Trump talking points. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Yeah. I mean, obviously there were so many tangents, as per usual, very clear that he went off script at some point there. But what were some of the big themes that stood out in his speech once he kind of got past that very kind of somber initial story? 

Dylan Wells: You know, the whole week, Trump and his advisers have said that this week is about unity. They said after the assassination attempt that was even more important to him. They brought his rivals up on stage yesterday to praise him, and he definitely was making an attempt to have a more unifying speech than his typical ones. But then, like you said, he, you know, moved away from what the teleprompter, you could see were in his prepared remarks, and he talked about crazy Nancy Pelosi, he talked about Hannibal Lecter, he talked in really harsh terms about immigrants coming into our country. And so there were kind of a reversal to his typical talking points at a normal Trump rally, even within this setting, of the kind of greatest hits of Donald Trump. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Definitely. I mean, you’ve been here all week long, and I want to know what were your biggest takeaways from the week, and what is the message that the Republican Party has cemented here? 

Dylan Wells: Well, I think in a way it is that message of unity that they are attempting to project, which they’re really trying to highlight in contrast to the Democrats. Obviously, right now with various members of President Biden’s own party calling on him to suspend his campaign. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Right. 

Dylan Wells: That’s the theme that the Republicans here have really been trying to hammer in on. But something that I think has been so interesting, given the assassination attempt, is how many delegates and members of Congress and party leaders I’ve talked to here who really do feel like that was divine intervention. And they feel like God is on their side. And there’s a lot of language about kind of the religious components of it. And they feel like–

Priyanka Aribindi: Right. 

Dylan Wells: –Trump was truly ordained by God, and that they are even more loyal and supportive and feel like this is theirs to win as a result, which I think has been a really interesting outcome of those events in terms of how the party’s most faithful are trying to frame it. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Right. And definitely an overarching theme, but I’m curious, did they actually cement a message about what they are looking to accomplish with the next term, or is it really more of this kind of vibe? 

Dylan Wells: It is more of those Trump one liners, the drill baby drill on day one um lines rather than, you know, a super detailed party platform. It was also interesting that I think Trump only mentioned Biden once or twice originally. He was not intending to in those remarks, but it was when he got off script, which again, is them trying to frame their message around the fact that they think that all the Democratic drama on right now means that Biden may not be the nominee they’re running against, even though they certainly hope he is. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time. 

Dylan Wells: Yeah. 

Priyanka Aribindi: And all your insight. We so appreciate it. 

Dylan Wells: Thank you so much for having me. 

Priyanka Aribindi: That was my conversation with Dylan Wells, campaign reporter for The Washington Post. We will link to her work in our show notes. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Thanks for that, Priyanka. And so now that Trump is officially the Republican Party’s nominee for the third presidential election in a row and has picked a vice presidential candidate that many see as the heir to his MAGA world, I wanted to know where that leaves Republicans who won’t vote for Trump. So I spoke with Mike Madrid. He’s been a vocal Never Trumper from the beginning. He’s a Republican political consultant and a co-founder of the Lincoln Project, a PAC founded by Republicans opposed to Trump. He also has a new book out called The Latino Century: How America’s Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy. Here’s our conversation. The convention has functioned as a kind of coronation for Donald Trump. Right. And we’ve seen some of his biggest critics and rivals proclaiming their loyalty to him during these prime time speeches over the last few days, including his own vice president pick, JD Vance. What does that tell you about what the party has become, even in just the last year or so? Is it’s transformation into the party of Trump complete to you? 

Mike Madrid: The first thing and again, as somebody who’s worked in Republican politics for 30 years, the one inviolable position that you could not take as a Republican for the last 50 years has been raising taxes. Right. The whole philosophy was about smaller government. You didn’t hear a single speaker extol the virtues of smaller government at this convention. The only true litmus test is whether or not you are willing to demonstrate fealty to the leader, whether or not you are willing to bend the knee for Donald Trump. It’s also why, you know, traitors, people who leave or speak out against it are the most chastised, the most driven out. It’s worse than being a Democrat or Antifa or a communist or whatever else they’re saying is is to actually leave the party and start to speak truth about what’s going on. In many ways, that’s the true transformation. This is no longer a political party, as we’ve known political parties in the American democracy sense for the better part of 150 years. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Yeah. After the assassination attempt this past weekend, the Trump campaign said that it would focus on unity during the RNC. But did you hear anything over the last few days that would appeal to groups of voters beyond the ones who are already Trump fans? 

Mike Madrid: No. And that’s a really important point, and it’s something that listeners should really pay attention to. When they’re talking about unity, what they are talking about is uniformity to their message. It’s not unity in the broad sense of tolerating or respecting other diverse opinions. It’s basically saying this is the way forward. This is how things are going to be. And if you want to acquiesce and change your mind and fall in line, then we can be united. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Yeah. The Trump campaign seems convinced that he’s headed toward a landslide victory in November at this point. But we’re still four months away from the election. And as we’ve just seen in the last week or so, a lot can change in just a few hours. As a political strategist yourself, do you think that there’s truth to that, to the Trump campaign’s belief that they’ve got this in the bag? 

Mike Madrid: I think there are probably some members of the base that think they’ve got it in the bag. But you have to remember, some of these base voters also believe that the election was stolen. And they also believe that Donald Trump is some sort of messiah. So there’s a lot of denial that’s gone on. But for those that are more sophisticated politically. JD Vance was not an expansive choice here. He was not a pick that would suggest that they are looking at an expansive map. In fact, his own speech was suggesting that this is about that traditional rust belt, blue wall that Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. That’s what JD Vance is speaking to. So it was a very defensive pick. This was the base’s base. Some might suggest that’s a smart move. But if they were as confident as they were in July that they were headed towards a landslide, they would have played this differently. At least that’s my opinion. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Now, you have said that you will vote for Joe Biden in the election, that you will never vote for Trump. We’re hearing lots of talks, lots of calls for Joe Biden to step down. What if Biden is not the Democratic nominee? Have you thought about what you would do as a voter in that case? 

Mike Madrid: Well I, there’s no way I’ll vote for Donald Trump. I would vote for the Democratic nominee unless it was somebody completely out of left field that was equally as dangerous. Like I don’t envision that, especially in comparison. There’s just no comparison. 

Tre’vell Anderson: What is your sense of how the Democrats should be handling this? Like should they be picking a new nominee? Should Biden drop out? And who in particular do you think would best appeal right to folks like yourself, independents, never Trumpers, in terms of someone that would not just be like the better option to Trump, but would be somebody y’all would be interested in getting behind?

Mike Madrid: Let me say first, as a Republican strategist, I’m absolutely perplexed by the way the Democratic Party is handling itself right now, especially party leaders and party elites. This idea that somehow there’s going to be some candidate that’s going to ride on this golden horse and kind of, you know, with unicorns and rainbows, following them and show them the path to victory is absurd. The data shows that there’s a path there, it’s crumbling. I think now, after four weeks of of just constantly attacking their own, how could it not be? So having said that, I don’t believe that any of the candidates being discussed has either a much higher ceiling or a much lower floor, and there’s probably more downside than upside, because none of these candidates are known or vetted on a national stage, and they will become the entire focus of a media onslaught that’s going to make the last three weeks look like child’s play. 

Tre’vell Anderson: So do you think Biden should stay in and that the party should not push him out? 

Mike Madrid: Yeah. Yeah, I’ve been publicly saying that. Now, that’s not where the Democratic leader, they won’t allow it anymore. The media, the pundits, the talking heads. You know, the jackals need to be fed as I’ve been saying. They’re going to rip his carcass apart politically. That’s just where they’re at. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Before I let you go, I want to talk a bit about Latino voters, especially. One of the reasons Trump seems to be doing better this cycle than in previous elections is because he appears to have broadened his support among Latino voters, especially men. Why do you think that is? Why do you think he’s been able to do that? 

Mike Madrid: It really has to do a lot with the fact that most voters of color are shifting to the right, predominantly males. It’s much more pronounced amongst Hispanics than any other group. And the reason is really simple. It’s because we are witnessing a dramatic explosion in now third and fourth generation Latino voters, who are compelled far more by economic and pocketbook issues that are very similar to the working class that they are filling the ranks of. In the energy patch, on the assembly lines and manufacturing, on construction sites. And they’re demonstrating that same concern about an existential threat, as they view it from the Democratic Party to put those industries out of work. That’s why you’re hearing Trump talk about things like no taxes on tips, why you hear him talking very protectionist about trade tariffs broadly. I mean it’s crazy that the Republican nominee is running on the largest tax increase in history. But here we are. And that isolationism is a lot of this populism that you heard frankly, from people like Bernie Sanders in the past. It’s not a right or left thing. It’s a populist thing. And it’s extremely resonant as the class separation starts to really divide America. This is all fixable, by the way, but it’s gonna it needs to happen very quickly at this point. And what I would strongly suggest is as bad as Joe Biden is doing with Latinos right now, I do not see any other candidate the Democrats have doing better. I see them doing probably worse. 

Tre’vell Anderson: So if Democrats want to do better in this moment, right, to try and win the lion’s share of Latino voters um in this election, in future elections, what does the party need to be doing? 

Mike Madrid: Well, from the 30,000 foot level, it has to recognize that it’s really no longer a party of the working class, but taking it down to very specifics. If I were Biden and Biden’s campaign, I would announce tomorrow a marshall plan for housing. One in five Hispanic men work in the residential construction space or a related field. The fact that interest rates have tripled, the fact that inflation has taken away about 20% of our purchasing power has just been a gut punch to Latino households. A massive blow to working class people in the Latino economy. So you have to bring the full force of the federal government to change this policy and move it around immediately. And if you did that, I think you could see numbers move considerably back to a traditional range within the Democratic Party. 

Tre’vell Anderson: That was my conversation with Mike Madrid, Republican political consultant and author of the new book, The Latino Century: How America’s Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy. We’ll get to some headlines in a moment, but if you like our show, make sure to subscribe and share it with your friends. We’ll be back after some ads. [music break]

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Priyanka Aribindi: Let’s get to some headlines. 

[sung] Headlines. 

Priyanka Aribindi: The calls for President Biden to drop out of the presidential race keep snowballing. Montana Senator Jon Tester, who is the sole Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation, issued a statement on Thursday evening saying, quote, “I’ve never been afraid to stand up to him when he is wrong. And while I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek reelection to another term.” Tester is the second senator to publicly call for Biden to step down alongside Vermont’s Peter Welch. Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin revealed on Thursday that he too urged the president to step down. He sent a four page letter to Biden earlier this month urging him to listen to people within his party. And privately, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, former speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and former President Barack Obama are just a few of the high profile Democrats who are reportedly expressing concerns about Biden’s viability as the Democratic nominee. Meanwhile, The New York Times reported on Thursday that Biden seems more receptive to the idea that he may not win in November and that he should be replaced. The president is currently quarantining at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, since his Covid diagnosis earlier this week. Meanwhile, eyes continue to be on Vice President Kamala Harris as his potential successor. She spent Thursday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she dug into Trump’s VP pick, JD Vance’s RNC speech from earlier this week. 

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] You cannot claim you stand for unity if you are pushing an agenda that deprives whole groups of Americans of basic freedoms, opportunity and dignity. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Absolutely. I mean, continues to be baffling that unity is a theme of this RNC, given everything that this party stands for. Thank you to Vice President Harris for pointing this out. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Making it plain okay. A federal appeals court on Thursday fully blocked the Biden administration’s student loan repayment program, known as the SAVE plan. Lower courts had already put portions of the program on hold after several Republican led states challenged it. The court’s ruling is only temporary, but if fully implemented, the SAVE plan could lower monthly income based payments for millions of borrowers and create a faster path to debt cancellation. The education department said in a statement that it would, quote, “continue to aggressively defend the program.” The ruling came on the same day that the Biden administration announced it would forgive another $1.2 billion in student debt for tens of thousands of public service workers. The administration says that brings the total amount of student debt forgiven to nearly $170 billion for nearly five million Americans. 

Priyanka Aribindi: And if all of this political upheaval has you feeling like the end times are near, don’t you worry, Costco has you covered. The membership only big box warehouse is selling an emergency food kit in stores and online, with 150 freeze dried and hydrated food servings with a promised shelf life of 25 years. The Readywise emergency food bucket has gone viral, with names like the Apocalypse Dinner Kit and Doomsday Kit. I bet our friend Josie Duffy Rice already has one of these in her basement ready to go. The instructions call for you to just add water and voila! You can dine on meals like cheesy macaroni, teriyaki rice, pasta alfredo, tomato basil soup, and even breakfast options. Because that is the most important meal of the day. And get this, you get all of this for the low price of $80 in Joe Biden’s America. Look at this. All right. That’s a deal. So Tre’vell, what I want to know, are you going to buy this kit?

Tre’vell Anderson: You know. I’m not really into the freeze dried food, if I’m being honest with you. However, I do love a good deal. Okay. 

Priyanka Aribindi: That is a deal. 

Tre’vell Anderson: And $80 for 150 freeze dried and hydrated food servings, shelf life of 25 years? Come on. 

Priyanka Aribindi: There is no better deal. Costco, I mean, I want to know what they know. What prompted them to make this? But um I do think my life might be better while I don’t. While I still don’t. [laughter] And those are the headlines. And one more thing before we go. It’s such an uncertain time. But there is one thing that always makes us feel better, retail therapy. Plus also getting involved in progressive politics obviously. At the Crooked store, you can do both. Shop a new collection of progressive merch for summer and feel good knowing that a portion of the proceeds from every purchase goes to support organizations doing incredible work across the US to ensure that every voice can be heard. Pick up a hot people vote tee for your next canvasing shift, or grab a Let Women Run Everything hat for your next feminist global takeover. Head to Crooked.com/store now. And also bittersweet news. Today is our last show with our associate producer Natalie Bettendorf. She spent the last year with us here on WAD squad producing several of the interviews and segments you heard on this very podcast, though it’s felt like so much longer really. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Absolutely. She’s been with us through it all, from covering dozens of Supreme Court decisions, the war in Gaza and Trump’s historic criminal conviction. She’s worked so hard to help us bring you the news every single day. So before she leaves, a few of us here on the team wanted to take a moment to share what we’ll miss the most about her. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Natalie, you are so smart. You are always down to get the person we need or make the production as good as it can be. You’ve just brought so much light to this production in a way that has been hard to do in one of the worst news years in history. So thank you so much for everything that you’ve done and we are going to miss you. Please always know that we want you back here whenever you’re ready to come back. 

Leo Duran: Natalie, it’s Leo, so sad to see you go, but really excited for all the traveling and taking the time off that you’ll definitely need in the next few months. So take care. Always WAD squad. Bye. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Natalie. I am so sad to be saying goodbye to you. You have such an amazing, positive demeanor and attitude to be around every single day. You’re so caring and empathetic. Thank you so much for everything. I really feel like we were the dream team out there with those interviews, and I’m just going to miss you so much. 

[clip of unidentified WAD crew member 1] Natalie, I’m so glad that we had the opportunity to work together and that you were able to come hang out in DC this summer in the sweltering heat, trekking up to the Supreme Court and also our late night debate coverage, which was epic as we see still unfolding in the news now. Um. Glad you’re going to have a chance to take a break. Enjoy the world, and we’ll be here when you get back. 

[clip of unidentified WAD crew member 2] Natalie, I’m going to miss your heart. I’m going to miss your smarts. I’m going to miss your spirit. But most of all, I am going to miss your kindness. It is an undervalued characteristic, not just in this business, but in life. And I cannot wait to see what you do next. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Natalie, I’m going to miss the particular way that you correct me on my pronunciations. You so nice about it. You don’t tell me I’m a country bumpkin. You just tell me how to say Khan Younis the right way or whatever. And for that I am grateful. What am I going to do without you, Natalie? 

[clip of unidentified WAD crew member 3] Good luck in all that is next. Natalie. We will miss your smile. We will miss your ideas. We will miss you. 

[clip of unidentified WAD crew member 4] Natalie. A few months ago, I told you that you were my favorite. And that was not a joke. You’re super smart, sweet to a fault, and excessively competent, and it’s a rare joy to get to work with somebody who is all three. We’ll all miss you. 

Raven Yamamoto: Natalie. No one on this team is going to miss you as much as I will. You have been my day one, my bestie, my desk partner that I get to see every single day and be annoying with. My work wife, my partner in crime, and I think what I’m going to miss the most about you is just knowing that you’re there and that you always have my back. But I’m so, so excited for what you’re going to do next. It’s been real. 

Priyanka Aribindi: From all of us here on What a Day, Natalie, we adore you so much. Thank you so much for everything that you do for us. We can’t wait to see what you do next. [music break]

Tre’vell Anderson: That is all for today. If you like the show. Make sure you subscribe. Leave a review, ready your Costco food buckets and tell your friends to listen. 

Priyanka Aribindi: And if you are into reading and not just reports of messy Democratic Party backroom fighting like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Priyanka Aribindi. 

Tre’vell Anderson: I’m Tre’vell Anderson. 

Priyanka Aribindi: And the RNC gives us nightmares. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Yeah. I’m sorry, I think I deserve hazard pay for watching Hulk Hogan. That was not okay. [laughter] My psyche wasn’t prepared for Trumpites running wild for four years. [music break]

Tre’vell Anderson: What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Bill Lancz. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf. We had production help today from Michell Eloy, Greg Walters, and Julia Claire. Our showrunner is Erica Morrison, and our executive producer is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. 

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