When PBS News Weekend anchor John Yang introduced his weekday colleagues Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz on Sunday night in Chicago, where they were preparing for the start of the Democratic National Convention on Monday, both anchors gushed over the new Democratic “enthusiasm.”
Amna Nawaz: ….I asked multiple Democratic officials and lawmakers, all of whom are attending the convention this week, to describe that sense of enthusiasm, they use words like joy and excitement and this word I heard a lot momentum going into this convention, and we have seen that momentum show up among voters in a race that has shifted dramatically since vice president Harris moved to the top of the ticket.
Nawaz asked PBS’s White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez about the “vibe” among Democrats in Chicago.
Laura Barron-Lopez: It’s totally different. You can feel it here on the ground in Chicago, Democrats are motivated in a way that we didn’t hear them be motivated prior to Kamala Harris jumping in and when it was a rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden….
Barron-Lopez described how the “nervous” and “grim” mood voters felt when Biden was the nominee had been replaced with “hope” and “excitement” and how black women were particularly excited (she focused on black women for Harris in an excited August 5 segment).
Given the excitement PBS is spreading before the convention has even started, don't expect a repeat on tine of PBS's sour coverage of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month.
Yang segued into another story out of Chicago, journalist Judy Woodruff’s history of the notorious Democratic National Convention of 1968. She opened with an interview of a 1968 Democratic Convention demonstrator, Michael James, then sat with Chicago-based liberal journalist Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, to describe the 1968 protests, the rioting, and police response. Perlstein said linking the Democrats with the violence was a smear and regretted that most of the country sided with the police, not the protesters.
Rick Perlstein: It was definitely an inflection point, and many, many things, it was an inflection point for the Republican politics of law and order and basically presenting themselves as the forces of hierarchy, decency. If you’re behind a white picket fence and work hard and play by the rules, the people Richard Nixon termed the Silent Majority were for you, and the Democrats are in cahoots with these anarchists, right? It was, profoundly inaccurate. It was a smear, but that was the beginning of that smear.
Woodruff drew parallels to today’s Democratic situation.
Woodruff: Fast forward to today, when a sitting Democratic president has stepped aside, a conflict rages overseas that has reignited tensions on the left. There are renewed pushes for women’s rights and racial equality, and the Republican presidential candidate himself, a recently convicted felon facing more charges, is running on a promise of law and order.
Besides the extraneous “convicted felon” reference, those euphemistic mentions of “women’s rights and racial inequality” were accompanied, in a case of ideological smuggling, by shots of a radical Black Lives Matter rally and an abortion rights rally.
Perlstein denied parallels between 2024 and 1968, but then, awkwardly, raised a potent one: Ubert Humphrey became the nominee in 1968, yet “didn’t enter a single primary.” But so did Harris, after the party elite pushed sitting president Joe Biden out!
Woodruff provided lame cleanup afterward.
Woodruff: Following 1968, the Democratic Party reformed its nominating contest to favor primaries, giving voters more of a say. While Perlstein says this year is unusual, Harris did appear on primary ballots with President Biden, and since his stepping aside, delegates have overwhelmingly lined up behind her.
In conclusion, she circled back to the 1968 protester for one last anti-Trump soundbite.
Michael James: I definitely don’t want to have what happened in ‘68 happen because I think that the danger of having the orange-haired guy resume office of presidency will really be a disaster, not only for America, but the world.
These pro-Democratic segments were brought to you in part by Consumer Cellular.
Transcripts are available:
PBS News Weekend
8/18/24
7:10:48 p.m. (ET)
JOHN YANG: It has been an unprecedented run up to this week`s Democratic Convention. The incumbent president dropping out under pressure from his own party, and the Vice President taking his place. NewsHour anchors Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz are in Chicago for the next chapter.
Geoff, what`s this week going to look like?
GEOFF BENNETT: Well, John, Democratic officials say the convention will open tomorrow night with the theme "For the People." We`ll hear from Secretary Hillary Clinton, the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, and President Joe Biden, whose prime time keynote address will make the case for electing Kamala Harris.
Tuesday will be organized along the theme of what Democrats call their "Bold Vision for America`s Future," with evening keynotes from Michelle and Barack Obama. Wednesday night, we can expect the campaign to draw a contrast with the Trump ticket, and that`s when we`ll hear from former President Bill Clinton and Kamala Harris`s running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
And on the last night, as is customary, we`ll hear from the nominee herself, Kamala Harris, as she formally accepts the Convention`s nomination for president, outlines her agenda and reintroduces herself to the American public.
So, over the next four days, Democrats will look to capitalize on their base`s newfound enthusiasm for this campaign, which has really returned the presidential race to a neck and neck contest.
AMNA NAWAZ: That`s right, Geoff, you know, I asked multiple Democratic officials and lawmakers, all of whom are attending the convention this week, to describe that sense of enthusiasm, they use words like joy and excitement and this word I heard a lot momentum going into this convention, and we have seen that momentum show up among voters in a race that has shifted dramatically since vice president Harris moved to the top of the ticket.
In fact, the latest battleground state polling shows Harris and former President Trump mostly tied. The latest national polling shows Harris with a narrow lead over Trump on both fronts. Of course, that is an improvement for Democrats from just a month ago when President Biden was still running for reelection.
Our White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez has been covering the Harris-Walz campaign. She`s here with us in Chicago.
So Laura, as we`ve been saying, this is a very different convention to the one Democrats were planning just a few weeks ago. What`s the vibe been like here in Chicago?
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: It`s totally different. You can feel it here on the ground in Chicago, Democrats are motivated in a way that we didn`t hear them be motivated prior to Kamala Harris jumping in and when it was a rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
And to seize on that momentum, Kamala Harris, the Vice President, is in Pennsylvania campaigning alongside her vice presidential pick, Tim Walz. They have a bus tour that`s going through Western Pennsylvania as well as Pittsburgh, and the campaign is holding 2,800 battleground state events where they are signing up more than 10,000 volunteers for shifts this week to knock on doors, including some high profile surrogates are out there, Pete Buttigieg, along with his husband in the state of Wisconsin, going through that key battleground state as they try to really just capitalize, as you said, Geoff, on the momentum that they`re feeling with their base.
GEOFF BENNETT: And Laura, I know you`ve been speaking with Democratic voters about this race. What have they been telling you?
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: I`ve been speaking to a number of Democratic voters, not just here in Chicago, but also in Wisconsin, and they tell a similar story. Essentially, a lot of them used words like nervous, worried. They used words like grim. When I asked them how they felt about this rematch, when it was a rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and then how they feel now that Kamala Harris is about to, you know, go through this convention and she`s the Democratic nominee, how they feel about that the race has totally changed. And they say that now they`re more hopeful, that they feel like all of the dynamics have shifted, that they sense it in their communities, and they are clearly much more excited to just go out and vote, and they feel as though that Democrats potentially have a chance to win this election, when they didn`t necessarily feel that just a few weeks ago.
AMNA NAWAZ: Laura, I know you`ve also been speaking with black voters in particular, of course, who are a key part of that Democratic coalition, voting bloc. What are you hearing from them?
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So as you both know, Donald Trump has been trying to siphon away, specifically black voters because, of course, the vast majority of black voters vote for Democrats, more than 80 percent almost every election cycle.
But he is thinking -- Donald Trump is thinking that at the margins, maybe he can siphon away a few black voters. I`ve been talking to some who voted for Trump in the past, saying that they aren`t as necessarily interested in voting for him this time, but they`re not exactly sold on Kamala Harris yet, and they want to hear more from her speaking directly to them, specifically on the economy. They want to hear a lot more from her on those issues, on housing, which we`ve seen that she started to roll out more of her plans to differentiate herself from President Joe Biden.
But the black women that I spoke to are credibly excited, and they feel as though that the country is ready to elect its first black woman and South Asian president. So they`re hoping that that what they`re feeling is something that a lot of other women are feeling across the country.
And a lot of them name issues like reproductive rights and health care and abortion for why they`re excited about Harris.
AMNA NAWAZ: We expect to hear a lot more, hopefully more details too, on this stage behind us for the rest of the week. Laura Brown-Lopez be here with us in Chicago all week. Thanks so much, Laura.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you.
AMNA NAWAZ: John, we will send it back to you.
JOHN YANG: Thanks, Amna, Geoff and Laura and the entire team in Chicago, and they will all be there for live special coverage every night of the Democratic National Convention, beginning Monday at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on PBS.
Chicago has hosted more presidential conventions than any other U.S. city, stretching back to 1860 when Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln, but perhaps none was as notorious or as consequential as the 1968 Democratic Convention, when deep divisions over the Vietnam War played out on both the convention floor and on the streets of Chicago, that history and its relevance to today is the subject of tonight`s installment of Judy Woodruff`s ongoing series, America at a crossroads.
MICHAEL JAMES, 1968 Democratic Convention Demonstrator: You know, we thought of ourselves as revolutionaries in those days, and we were really irked by the Democratic Party and the war in Vietnam.
JUDY WOODRUFF (voice-over): Michael James was in Chicago in 1968 when the protests at the Democratic Convention began.
MICHAEL JAMES: It`s not just the war in Vietnam. It was early women`s movement, certainly civil rights movement. People were really aware of what was going on in the world, and were taken out of the Democratic Party.
We were demonstrating because all of the delegates were staying here.
JUDY WOODRUFF (voice-over): I met him across the street from the Hilton in downtown Chicago, where he took part in some of the most intense clashes, including when he and others began rocking a police van.
MICHAEL JAMES: And there`s a lot of myths about tipping it over, but we never did. We rocked it. This guy in this passenger seat.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Right here.
MICHAEL JAMES: Right here, he comes out. He grabs one of these guys. I grabbed him. I took him down, and I disappeared.
JUDY WOODRUFF (voice-over): It was another violent moment in an already bloody year.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, Civil Rights Leader: We`ve got some difficult days ahead.
JUDY WOODRUFF (voice-over): Civil rights leader Martin Luther King had been assassinated, leading to days of riots in major cities, including Chicago, mired in the Vietnam War, which would kill tens of thousands of Americans. President Lyndon Johnson decided not to seek a second term.
LYNDON JOHNSON, Former U.S. President: I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.
JUDY WOODRUFF (voice-over): He threw his support behind his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, but it was up to the delegates to choose a new nominee at the convention.
Then in June, less than three months before the convention was set to begin, one of Humphrey`s challengers, Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down.
RICK PERLSTEIN, Author: The menace of violence was everywhere. It was inside the convention hall. It was outside the convention hall.
JUDY WOODRUFF (voice-over): Chicago based author and journalist Rick Perlstein has written extensively about that summer, including in his book "Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America." We met at the Chicago History Museum last week.
RICK PERLSTEIN: It all came to a head on Thursday, August 28, when the protesters tried to march to the convention hall from this hotel downtown, were kind of waylaid by the police, so they decided to sit down right in the middle of the street, do a sit down strike right in front of the cameras, and the Chicago Police waded into the crowd with billy clubs and just randomly started beating people as hard as they could, throwing them into police wagons.
When the police wagon was full, they`d throw a tear gas canister inside, then they would close the doors, and the protesters were chanting, the whole world is watching.
JUDY WOODRUFF (voice-over): The city`s mayor, Richard J. Daley, was incensed by protesters threatening to disrupt the convention. Police were also angry, feeling they had been held back from responding in full force earlier that year during the riots following King`s assassination, and many of the protesters thought the country would be on their side.
RICK PERLSTEIN: But it turned out that most of the country seemed to side with the police. Believe that they must have been provoked.
MAN: With George McGovern as President of the United States, we wouldn`t have to have to stop those statics in the streets of Chicago.
JUDY WOODRUFF (voice-over): At the same time, there was chaos inside the convention hall as the party battled over whether to call for the end of the Vietnam War.
RICK PERLSTEIN: That was equally conflict written and all of these forces came together in an extraordinary confluence of violence, anger, and all of it was seen on TV.
JUDY WOODRUFF (voice-over): In the end, Perlstein explained, most Americans sided with the police. Richard Nixon ran on a promise to restore law and order.
RICHARD NIXON, Former U.S. President: A growing concern is also the issue of peace at home.
JUDY WOODRUFF (voice-over): That November, he narrowly beat the eventual Democratic nominee Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
RICK PERLSTEIN: It was definitely an inflection point, and many, many things, is an inflection point for the Republican politics of law and order and basically presenting themselves as the forces of hierarchy decency. You know, if you`re behind a white picket fence and work hard and play by the rules, the people Richard Nixon termed the silent majority were for you and the Democrats are in cahoots with these anarchists, right? It was, you know, profoundly inaccurate. It was a smear, but that was the beginning of that smear.
JOE BIDEN, U.S. President: I revere this office, but I love my country more.
JUDY WOODRUFF (voice-over): Fast forward to today, when a sitting Democratic president has stepped aside, a conflict rages overseas that has reignited tensions on the left. There are renewed pushes for women`s rights and racial equality, and the Republican presidential candidate himself, a recently convicted felon facing more charges, is running on a promise of law and order.
RICK PERLSTEIN: I think the parallels don`t really rise above the level of the superficial. Conventions are very different now than they were in 1968 in part because of 1968. In 1968 the guy who became the Presidential Nominee the Democratic Party didn`t enter a single primary. Basically, the delegates decided who to vote because political bosses told them to. And these were deals made in back rooms, often at the convention.
JUDY WOODRUFF (voice-over): Following 1968 the Democratic Party reformed its nominating contest to favor primaries giving voters more of a say, while Perlstein says this year is unusual, Harris did appear on primary ballots with President Biden, and since his stepping aside, delegates have overwhelmingly lined up behind her.
But the question remains if younger progressive voters who are pro- Palestinian will also back Harris.
JUDY WOODRUFF: How would you compare the passions that were flowing in 1968 around Vietnam with what`s going on now in the United States, around the Israel, Gaza war?
RICK PERLSTEIN: Well, there`s, you know, considerable group of people who are extremely passionate about what`s going on in Israel and in Gaza. I would say the biggest difference is that the people who are extremely passionate about what was going on in Vietnam were young people who could have ended up in Vietnam that same month. And this is a time in which as many as 100 American soldiers were dying a day.
You know, I don`t want to take away from a moral passion, but you know, this was kind of life and death.
JUDY WOODRUFF (voice-over): In addition, Perlstein says the federal government now runs security, which has become much tighter, especially after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
RICK PERLSTEIN: There was this brief shining moment in which, you know, this crazy thing American political convention that is not predictable, seemed possible, but the Democrats are in array. You know, they`ve lined up behind a candidate. I think 83 percent of Democrats said that they agree with the decision of the party to put forward Kamala Harris over Joe Biden. The delegates will vote for her. Will hear inspiring speeches, will see celebrities sing songs, and life goes on.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But very different from `68 inside the hall.
RICK PERLSTEIN: Very different from 1968. America before August 28, 1968 and after August 28, 1968 was a different America. The idea that this convention will be a watershed is pretty much inconceivable. Now, this election might be a watershed. But, you know, the energy lies elsewhere.
MICHAEL JAMES: I think it`s important to keep it kind of cool.
JUDY WOODRUFF (voice-over): That`s a point that Democrat and former 1968 protester Michael James agrees with.
MICHAEL JAMES: I definitely don`t want to have what happened in `68 happen because I think that the danger of having the orange haired guy resume office of presidency will really be a disaster, not only for America, but the world.
JUDY WOODRUFF: For PBS News Weekend, I`m Judy Woodruff in Chicago.
