Season and what voters should look for during the Opening Night of the Democratic National convention. This is about five minutes. We are using platforms. You can watch events and catch up on Convention News at the hub on our website, the hill. Com. Is thought, timely and relevant events at 11 00 a. M. Eastern and 1 00 p. M. Eastern. Bigill focus on the questions, questions about the real impact of covid19 on a president ial election, the role of social media and digital targeting, the battle for congress, the pulse of the American Voter and the ticket of joe biden and come along and Kamala Harris. I would like to thank the American Petroleum institute for their support of todays events. Using the thes hill 2020. We are broadcasting live. You could expect occasional trouble with the video. I laughed when we get to that part. Freshening the page should fix the problem. Lets jumpther ado, in with when more. Moore. N moore it is great to see you again. Is it any different being sergeant at arms when everyone wouldve been gathered in milwaukee versus the online challenges you have now . Is Chuck Schumer going to be more difficult to control . If i could control him, that would be the dream job for me. This is very exciting. I dreamed of this convention so long ago. I am now just excited to be able to be here, even in this form. When you look at it and making lemonade out of lemons, so many opportunities that we had were not for these platforms. Trainingave an Amazing Academy that will be available to delegates all across the country as we unify around our strategies to get the vote out, to try to beat the assault on the post office and share how to do that. We are going to be able to zoom from room to room. I had an amazing meeting last ,ight with wisconsin delegates where we had five rooms. I met people i would have never had the opportunity to meet all across the state. From alluminaries within our party who are going to be joining us throughout the week. Today will be very exciting, besides the fact that im going to speak, i think. I think we are going to see andrew cuomo, bernie sanders, and, of course, michelle obama. Have a greatto time. You are the top of my list because you are here today. You be when the few speakers in the center tonight. If it is not giving away too much, one of the themes you are going to highlight what are you going to highlight tonight . Difficult butery also very simple. That is to welcome people to milwaukee. Just give them a little flavor of what milwaukee is about. It will all be done in one minute. I have had perfect training for those one minutes by being a member of Congress Since 2005. In one minute, we are one to really get people to understand this is part of a family with a big job to do. As you and your colleagues have struggled in this time, where we not only had the protests in the issues about inequality and Police Brutality after George Floyds murder, we had the pandemic hitting and over 54 Million People have applied for unemployment, how is the Democratic Party going to put together a package that deals these three assault on the nation . Question. The real one of the things that has been very troubling to me is how Many Americans believe that donald trump has done a better job with he economy. It is our job to educate them and to remind them that it was under president obama with joe biden by his side that we pulled ourselves out of the great economyn to create the that trump inherited and now even precovid was destroying. From this constant but wisconsin is an agricultural state and we have seen our farmers commit suicide, quite frankly. Record losses a lot of it has had to do with the malpractice of this presidency. I think that it is our charm to demonstrate our chore to demonstrate that we are the party that wants them to have health care. And remind them that during a pandemic, one of the reasons there is such a huge divide in income is because so many people have underlying conditions that in outcome is because some of the people had underlying conditions that werent covered. We are the party that wants to raise the minimum wage. We are the party that wants to notyou the unemployment and perceive that you are gaming the system due to no fault of your own because you lost your job. I think that wisconsin, milwaukee provides the Perfect People that showing we respect workers and that we americaa very diverse since milwaukee is one of the most diverse places in the country. Serviceaise the postal in the postmaster general has come out and said that the postal system will deliver all the mail on time and it is appropriately bundled in the packages. Nancy pelosi is convening congress to basically try and stop any changes in Mail Processing infrastructure before the election. What can the house really do and what are the can do . That is very important. I am grateful to Speaker Pelosi for bringing us back in. Verify. To trust and they have already told us what is in their playbook. We have already seen them removing mailboxes and slowing down workers and firing all the leadership in the post office. I am glad she is bringing us back to try to number one have the postmaster general come before us and explain what he is doing and for us to tell him to ceaseanddesist. I also hope that we have a legal strategy to try and stop them from taking away constitutionally guaranteed right to vote and this Constitutional Institution in the post office. Has a 90 tution Approval Rating in the american public. What do you think Kamala Harris will bring to the ticket, along with Vice President biden . God, wenow, honest to could not be more proud of to standmala harris sidebyside with joe biden. What she brings to the table is very obvious. She is brilliant, but not only is she brilliant, but she has also shown her compassion. I will give you an example there are a lot of comments about her being a prosecutor. But who has she prosecuted . She prosecuted Oil Companies that have destroyed the environment. She has prosecuted banks that have thrown people out of their she has gone after people who have hurt the least of us and this, she has truly used her perch in Law Enforcement to benefit the least of us. She is smart and compassionate. Year where you, in a we are relying on white women for the First Time Since the 1960s to vote for democrats, it is very important for us to give them yet another opportunity to do that. Ala is a woman, and a woman of color, and immigrant, someone we can see ourselves in her. Woman, asgrant, as a a person of color, as a person who does not have the ways and means to make it in this rough economy. Kamalahope in harris. I can hear your excitement. I am such a fan of your work on jobs and your focus on people who have been left behind. I interviewed Vice President biden right before the election between senator Hillary Clinton and donald trump and he said whether we have or not, the public has the impression the Democratic Party became a party of snobs and we need to fix that. I am wondering, you talk a lot about this. Has the party made the shift in reaching real people with real challenges . Vice President Biden told me once it was not cutting it. You know what . s misfortune in his life has become fortune for the American People. Regularlyguy commuted back and forth between delaware and washington, d. C. Because he was a singleparent. How many other men in politics or in the corporate world have had the experience millions of women have every day . Trying to bring home the bacon, fry it in the pan, during this pandemic. We have got to be the schoolteachers, the people who has to scrub the toilet. He has done this. This is one of the things that has given him the greatest empathy on the stuff i care about and that is lifting people out of poverty. His initiatives around childcare, the Child Tax Credit i want to expand the earned income tax credit to that thehe americans Poor Peoples Campaign talk about. They are hardworking, but low wealth. They cannot make ends meet. Back to precovid economics. Experience,iven his it is something that will benefit so many millions of americans who have not really had a stake in america until this point. Congresswoman, i could talk to you for hours. It is really fascinating and i look forward to more opportunities. You said one of the controversies the convention will be facing is that some members of your caucus are not thrilled medicare for all is not part of the platform. Is that going to somehow be resolved and percolate in a way those members who vote against the platform, that you are somehow going to get beyond that . Are you going to be able to hold together over this vital question . Know, i think medicare is a concept that, in a construct, most democrats agree with to the extent we believe in universal health care. I think what we are going to do Going Forward is to focus on what we agree with. Every single american should have a right to health care. But we have to start where we are and where we are we have a president who is in court trying to destroy the Affordable Care act. Said,e a president who should he win again, he wants to destroy Social Security which would undermine medicare. This is where we are. Pissingd not be in a match about what medicare means. We need to have universal health care and i think thebidenharris committed to that. I think that will satisfy most members. Bernie sanders has made a big impact on this. The pandemic demonstrated the absolute inefficiency of the health care system. It has stood up arguments against paying twice as much for health care and having the worst americans pay twice care withr health the highest mortality rates than anybody in the socalled wealthy countries. Their arguments are going to have an impact. Thank you so much for that, representative gwen moore. You can see her tonight eking at the Wisconsin Center telling everybody about milwaukee and what is going to unfold during this week. Thank you for joining us today. Led toid19 pandemic has one of the most Unconventional Campaign seasons in my lifetime. In the past few months as rallies became a thing of the past, social media and digital targeting became more important. To unpack these dramatic changes and understand what that could mean for the democratic ticket of joe biden and Kamala Harris, i am joined by political strategists. Thank you for joining me today. I have talked about how a campaign and party gets policy right. Tougher, whate has become easier, and connecting a campaign and convention to policy in the covid era . Harder to it is a lot do the traditional things like meeting people and engaging directly facetoface, but we findfocused on the news than ine past. People are looking for information, they are engaging, more engaged in this election and the enthusiasm to vote is high. This is really about trying to areect people where they and that is online. Maria, you have worked with the Latino Community. You look at the bro plate of voters, but also specialize in the latino vote. How is this going for them . Does the online experience, the online connectivity you have been working on, does that work well in this time compared to what the trump team was talking about door knocks . It does and good morning. Good morning. You know this, steve, because you have been at many events i have been in. Is Hispanic Community , the hispanicl voter is younger than the mainstream population and we disproportionately use online platforms, digital platforms. We get our news digitally in english and spanish. I think it is a platform that has engaged younger latino voters while the older voters are engaged by the more traditional broadcast news, radio. When you are looking at a campaign that wants to reach the overall Latino Community they have to use and i know the Bidenharris Campaign is doing this they use all the platforms and traditional media forums. I think that is what is so exciting about this campaign. Everything is on the table and all the tools that have led us to reach everyone where they are are going to be incredibly valuable. Neera,me ask you both, you were advising Hillary Clinton, obama, i have known you through sony campaigns on the policy side. When you are in a time, wherever you look in the country whether it is the pandemic, unemployment, and what is going to happen downstream with the economy which is not the stock market when you look at what is going on with racial injustice, economic injustice. When everything is burning at the same time howd you get a coherent dashboard . You are a pro at this, you both are. Dashboard the bidenharris ticket can provide in a chaotic moment . I think you will see a lot of this this week. President biden talked about and senator harris has talked about. We have a pandemic and our economic dislocation and disruption is a result of the mishandling of the virus. Responding to the virus and a better response to the virus and economy go handinhand. We also have a long simmering virus which is racial injustice. Bidenharris campaign is going to talk about both of these issues. Essentially leadership and the difference of leadership for these twin pandemics. On racial justice, it could not be more stark. De have a president who sowe Racial Division and the Bidenharris Campaign is about the opposite, embracing diversity, trying to push against divides. You will hear about how we need to president who is a president of all americans. We need an administration who will represent republican, democrat, and independent. This is the opposite of the message we have heard for the last four years. Maria, how do you see that dashboard of priorities . What do you think the biggest challenge is for the bidenharris ticket . Challenge the biggest is they have made that a positive and i will tell you why. Going into this there has been some struggle with the Joe Biden Campaign connecting with latino voters. We are seeing latino voters are more excited to vote for him than before and part of that was the selection of Kamala Harris. Tickets point, this is about bringing the country together. Critically what you are going to see is how this ticket is going to offer america a pathway with leaders that takes it out of the constant chaos in crisis and into an era of health and safety and Economic Opportunity for all based on science, fact, stability, humanity. L ofly taking back the sou the nation which was incredibly important. You something a little indelicate. During the russia investigation, the molar investigation, Kamala Harris i spoke with her and she praised senator john andin and other officials said the fate of our nation rests with some of these other people. I was impressed by the majority of that and the bravery of that. That is a flight for many that she is not from the left. She can see competency and common cause. Is that going to work is the party going to be unified enough, neera, to understand sometimes you need to see the benefits like the late senator mccain brought . I am interested in where you draw a line between one party and the other and that magnanimity of showing something across the line and if that will cost Kamala Harris in the eyes of some. I think this is a data question. There is narrative about the division, but the data is clear. Has fullyatic party embraced senator harris as vp. In a series of polls over the last few days she has drawn support amongst democrats. Strong support among independents as well. Joe biden right now is getting 90 of senatornd sanders supporters. I would like to tip my hat to senator sanders because he has done a great job in unifying. Democrats are hungering. Many are hungering for a time where politics is not warfare. I think you will see tonight the Democratic Party is featuring a republican because it is important to communicate that republicans are welcome to vote for joe biden. The reason that should matter to every democrat is you want as large a vote for joe biden and Kamala Harris as possible. I think there is strong recognition in this party even the democratic primary multiple candidates reached out to republicans and independents. I think that is a critical message over the next two and a half months. Thank you. Maria . I totally agree. You know what else . When you have, let harris doing Kamala Harris doing exactly what she is doing, in the trunk campaign attacking her as a radical leftist, that is why they will not work. She is all about unifying not just the Democratic Party, but the country. Voters are really hungry to look at their leaders and see them as people of principles, values, people with experience. They have had it with a president who has no idea and frankly, no interest in governing. You have the joe biden and Kamala Harris ticket that wants to take us out of the pandemic, keep all americans safe, opened the economy safely, and you have a president who is trying to figure out how to put his face on mount rushmore. [laughter] i think that is the stark contrast you will be seeing. One of the powerful things representative gwen moore said is we need white women. Buteed white women joining, neera, you are a prominent indianamerican woman and maria, you have the tie in with the Latino Community. How do you both take advantage of identity in this time, but also make it big . Is it going to be easy or hard . Neera . Spacehink this is the where i am most hopeful. Aftermathent in the of the George Floyd Protests tried to use that as a wedge issue. He fired on protesters with tear gas and the American People rejected that. White voters, overwhelmingly white women, rejected the division. Trump, we arenald seeing a Broad Coalition made up of people of color, women, white collegeeducated voters who are repelled at the division and really hate the administration. I think Kamala Harris, and you can see this in the data white women, women of color, all women can take pride in the fact that we have a woman, and a woman of color, as the vp nominee. You are seeing that. Women are taking pride in the selection. Maria, i would love to get your thoughts. Absolutely. Not just a woman of color, but the doctor of immigrants daughter of immigrants twice over. She understands the immigrant experience. When i went down to the border two years ago when the Trump Administration made a policy to separate children from their mothers, to rip babies from the arms of their mothers, i looked around in terms of the people protesting and i saw a lot of white women. Guess what happened in the Midterm Election . What women flood the Republican Party because they hated what they were seeing for the administration to put a policy in place that let us to u. S. Sanctioned kidnapping. We had generations of children who will never know who their family is because of what the Trump Administration has done. Women understand this no matter and that is what we are seeing in terms of unity. Yes, Kamala Harris and joe biden understand the experience of communities of color and have thought communities of color their whole lives. But white women, mainstream americans, everybody understands what is at stake and that is the soul of this country. They want civilized leadership, they want human leadership, they want leaders who understand we are stronger united and diversity is not something to be attacked, but something to be uplifted. Let me ask you both, as we wrap this up, i have to admit our opening on this kind of dealt in a simple almost sterile way with social media, digital targeting, but that has become murky. It is filled with lots of danger. There are a lot of mistruths out there. Democratic Party Machinery working through this how hard is it to get back to conveying enthusiastic, truthful messages or how much you have to be on the defensive . I want to take the gloss off that question and say what is the muck really like and is the machinery prepared to deal with it . That is such an important question because you are right. It is a huge challenge. Group my partners in the is working on the Disinformation Campaign and there are a lot of partners, a lot of allies, and more from facebook and twitter and we need to see more from them and others that are calling out that misinformation, that are calling out the lies. The media is also incredibly important. We are seeing more reporters that are calling out that kind of Misinformation Campaign that is absolutely coming from the Trump Administration every day. We have to look at it as a huge challenge. We have to be alert, we have to be on the defensive, but then go on the offense and tell all of our voters they need to be careful. They should be vigilant in terms of the kinds of news they share with their networks and share with their friends. I have many times told my own friends, this is not true. Please do not share this. Please look at what you are sharing and understand where it is coming from. It is a huge challenge, but i think our democratic allies in the Democratic Network at large is ready to take this on, and we need to do everything we can to ensure that what we are sharing is true and call out every single misinformation, misguided attempt and ally coming from the and lie coming from the other side. Neera tanden, how do you think media should navigate the muck . Individually, maria is right. You have to be very vigilant about manipulation online. For organizations, i think there are two things. One, you need to call out lies when you see them. There is always the question about elevating a lie. It is really hard to determine. I also think we need to have fresher institutions like facebook. Ishave a basic problem which that lies told by political leaders, lies on ads are not scrutinized. Aidsare freeform and that this tactic. It is important for all of us to forums, social media particularly facebook which is very powerful in an election more money will be spent on facebook than any other media and it is vital people realize and pressure facebook to actually ensure they are not just a tool that weaponizes disinformation. I want to thank you both, neera tanden, i look forward to talking to you more. Thank you, steve. Maria, principal of dewey square group. I love all the work you do with that community. Thank you both and also to congresswoman gwen moore for helping to launch our coverage this week of all the things going on with the Democratic National convention. Gracias, steve. Thank you. We are getting you the news and analysis you can rely on. Will be jampacked at the hill. Com. To talk about the voters and ticket i am joined by Julia Manchester. Great to see you. My last question two neera and maria was in the social media phase. That is one of the vital tools used by the democrats, maybe the republicans will do the same, but they seem to be wanting to have rallies and in person things. Neear and maria shared . I think it is quite possible. Right now, the democrats have an obstacle ahead of them. They have the convention and with that comes viewer fatigue. Watching these speeches without a live audience, without the balloons we have seen that famous gif of Hillary Clinton after she accepted the democratic nominee but now it will be virtual. Democrats really will have to get creative to try and appeal more voters and get them engaged. We know they have brought in a number of guests and celebrities to try and make it a bit more interesting for viewers, more engaging, but i think this really does go along with the democratic strategy right now and with the biden strategy. That is setting an example amid the pandemic. Last week when Vice President biden and senator harris walked out for the first time in public they were both wearing masks. They were in a small gymnasium, only a few staff and socially distant reporters were there. That would not normally be the case in another Election Year when you would see a big rally. Campaign isbiting definitely trying to set Biden Campaign is definitely trying to set an example. You just talked about Kamala Harris and the ticket and the masks. Is there a sense in the party, and understanding felt about what a historic ticket this is or is that being lost on folks . There is no doubt an understanding about what historic ticket this is. If you step back and look at the global climate, the deaths of a number of too many unarmed black individuals really launched the latest civil rights movement. I think you saw joe biden, who already committed to picking a female running mate, he was definitely forced to look into committing to an africanamerican woman which is symbolic in itself. Africanamerican women have been the backbone of the Democratic Party for decades. Ons really is a reflection where we are as a country where Vice President biden wants to be and just trying to appeal to a voting block to recognize that voting block and show thankfulness and gratitude to that block. Julia, you have been a student for many years of Party Platforms. Often times Party Platforms are there to unite rather than divide, but how is this Party Platform shaping up and how does it compare to others you have looked at . I would say this Party Platform definitely gives more concession to progressives in the party and is lending a hand to that leftward flank of the party. You saw progressive figures like congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez with john kerry, a longtime figure of the democratic establishment, to help craft the climate platform. We know that progressives have very much been involved in the crafting of the platform, but they are walking a narrow line because they want to unite the Democratic Party as a whole, not just the progressives who have gained popularity. I think the platform is just one symbol of how this unifying message is being portrayed. If you just look at the amount of speakers and who the speakers are, that really shows the theme of unifying you are seeing in this convention. You have former first Lady Michelle obama, a very major figure in the democratic establishment, very popular and then you have bernie sanders. He is the leader of the progressive movement. You even have former republican Governor John Kasich, someone who is associated with the never trump movement. Definitely systemi the democrats way of saying we need to get the troops from the ideological spectrum in order to compete against donald trump. Julia, had you ever imagined a month ago the u. S. Postal service would be the hottest above the fold topic in american politics . I would love to get your take on it and whether or not the fight over Postal Service and mailin main theis going to re topic for a while. It is interesting. We have seen this fight over mailin ballots brewing over the past couple of months amid the pandemic. I spent the last five months in florida reporting on the virus and how it intercepted politics. What i saw was the beginning of the battle over mailin voting. In florida, 20 of the states senior citizens. That means the majority of the voters are going to want to vote by mail. Of course. Not to interrupt, but the president as well. The president as well and press secretary as well or she has in the past. Aside it is interesting to look at who mail in voting benefits and who it does not. Senior citizens have tended to vote republican. However, this practice also benefits those of lower income communities where, for example, numbers may not have the luxury of taking a day off or part of a day off to go to a ballot box or they may not have the luxury of getting transportation to that ballot box. Mailin voting very much works in their favor and the democratic favor. I think the timing of all of this is very interesting. President trump brings this up three months before an election where he is trailing in statewide polls. That is very interesting time to say the least. I want to tell our audience there is nobody better than my colleague Julia Manchester at working her way into the next and crannies of Political Parties and cap tell parties. Parties. Il when you are online what are the secret skills you have developed to find your way into the juicy stories in an Online Convention . It has definitely been an adjustment. Something a number of reporters, including myself, struggled with that first. One thing i realized is that reporters are not the only ones going through this. The people you need at these parties are not at those gatherings anymore. Advisors, strategists, they are looking to connect with reporters as well. The two sides of how this works in washington have really come together online. I have actually been connected with a number of people in the lead up to the convention, and other races happening, online because they are looking to recapture reporters as well. I have met a number of new context. At first it was new contacts. At first it was tough, but now it is a silver lining. We are going to be talking all week, right . I am around. Tonight, i know you are looking forward to hearing from michelle obama. Who are you most excited about in the second slot . In second i would say new york governor andrew cuomo. He has become a celebrity of sorts among millennial voters and gen z. You open up twitter or tiktok or instagram and you see memes because he became so popular at the press briefings. Especially when the biting Biting Campaign is campaign isden making the pandemic such a big. Ssue to draw support manchester, political reporter of the hill, thank you for joining us and we will see you later this week. Thank you, steve. That brings us to the end of the program. Thank you to the American Petroleum institute for their support and all of you in the audience for joining us for our first program. We will be back at 1 00 p. M. Eastern for a deep dive on issues surrounding energy access. For those of you who missed the conversation, you will find clips on our Convention Page shortly. Stay well. Announcer we have got more from campaign 2020 with president trump. He is traveling to minnesota where he will give a speech on the economy. We will have that live starting at 3 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. A live look at milwaukee, wisconsin for the first night at the Democratic National convention will kick off at 9 00 p. M. Eastern. The first hour will feature Senators Amy Klobuchar and Catherine Cortez masto along with andrew cuomo and gretchen whitmer. We expect former republican Governor John Kasich and other republicans to address delegates tonight