Thread by @daveweigel

Heavy rhetorical focus on diversity at today’s DNC meetings — real record scratch as Trump admin unwinds DEI programs, w Rs confident that this stuff is an electoral loser.

“There has never been a Native American in leadership at the DNC. If not now. when?”

"Unlike the other party, that is demonizing diversity, we understand that diversity is our greatest strength," says outgoing DNC chair Jaime Harrison before bringing the candidates out.

Marianne Williamson uses "enormity" correctly in opening statement... not sure how many votes that gets but it's 10 points on my scoring system.

Our first interruption

First Q: Who thinks Democrats have responded sufficiently to Trump’s first week? Williamson half-raises her hand, saying some Dems like Pritzker have done well.

"We have some golden threads, but we need to build the loom."

Faiz Shakir says DNC has good messaging tools but isn't using them to pounce on breaking news. "If he is freezing Medicaid, we need to identify Medicaid recipients."

Second interruption (from someone w Sunrise Movement shirt): "Show the working class you stand with us!"

Q: How would you have handled the moment after Biden dropped out? Wikler defends process.

"The people chosen to choose our nominee moved with lightning speed. There was a vote. We voted for Kamala Harris to be our nominee."

Third interruption! These are getting more laughs than anything from crowd. Symone Sanders says, if anyone else wants to interrupt, just stand up now.

Jason Paul, one of the lesser known candidates, remarks on Sunrise repeatedly interrupting forum: "I signed the pledge they wanted me to sign, so it's a little surprising... it's a little odd, when people onstage agree with you, that you then yell at them."

He wraps up and another Sunrise protester gets up and demands they raise their hand for the pledge. "Do you work for billionaires or for people like me?"

More interruptions; some in crowd getting rougher with the protesters.

My video cuts out before this but as he got kicked out of the room he said “peace out, bitches!”

Ken Martin asked about his line that Dems should take money from "good billionaires" but not bad ones, puts out a couple of conditions: "We will not take money from corporations that are union-busting."

Wikler, like Martin, says that Dems should obviously end dark money etc but "to do that, we need to win enough elections that we can change our laws."

Jason Paul says the party should take a few more moves to get big money out, again asking why Sunrise protested after the candidates agreed to their demands: "I was happy to sign - much happier before they hijacked the whole meeting."

Jen Psaki asks O'Malley twice about why Dem spending on abortion ads didn't work. "I respect your ability to ask me that question," he says, pivoting to climate change.

The protester chaos/fringe candidates have prevented any real tussle between the candidates, but Williamson takes a shot at Wikler/Martin: "Reid Hoffman is not a good billionaire... he was trying to get Lina Kahn out of office."

Psaki asks if Dems should coordinate more w super PACs; Faiz Shakir unsurprisingly says no, pointing to his grassroots fundraising success at ACLU/Bernie 2020.

Ken Martin, who has been the frontrunner throughout race, not really being pushed on anything - using each Q to launch into main message. "We've got the right message, what we need to do is connect it back with the voters."

O'Malley and Martin agree that they need a "misinformation, disinformation war room."

O'Malley sort of contradicting the anti-disinfo war room idea: "We do waste too much time responding to false attacks... if we're not filling up the pipeline with truth, they're going to fill it up with lies."

Very little disagreement from the leading candidates: Wikler also saying Dems need to elevate real people like they did when they when they saved ACA. Compares Dems' low favorable rating w even lower support for cutting Medicaid: "We can overwhelm the algorithm."

Jonathan Capehart asks for a show of hands: "How many of you believe that racism and misogyny played a role in VP Harris's defeat?"

Every hand goes up, and DNC members in crowd also raise their hands.

"You all passed," says Capehart.

Shakir says Dems can use what he did at More Perfect Union, find real working class people and center/explain their fights. "When they see the Democratic Party put economic justice as their prime issue -- that's what they want to support."

Williamson: "I was a TikTok sensation when my presidential campaign began, and I know why: Because I was telling the truth."

Text from a Dem campaign vet watching this

O'Malley asked how Dems should respond to anti-trans ads: "In our country, we believe in the dignity of every person. In our country, we are all in this together. That's a distraction, because he doesn't want you to focus on the fact that he and his billionaire boys club are going to take it to you."

O'Malley singles out one attack he never saw an effective Dem response to: Harris would tax your Social Security and give the benefits to illegal immigrants. "Did we respond? No response."

Martin cites Andy Beshear op-ed as how Dems should respond to anti-trans ads. (Not mentioned in op-ed, Beshear cut an ad saying "of course" he doesn't support gender surgery on minors.) nytimes.com/2024/11/12/opi…

Q: What factors should go into deciding 2028 calendar? Is diversity important?

Martin says the calendar "should reflect the diversity and traditions" of the party.

Q: How can they excite progressives? Williamson says party should talk more about Medicare for All, raising minimum wage, the PRO Act. "There is so much despair out there."

1 hour+ into forum, O'Malley, talking about how the party can re-approach working class voters, makes the only veiled reference to Biden failing: "We didn't do that in the WH as well as we should, so we couldn't make the closing argument at the end."

I'm not running the forum but, after four of these official DNC events, not a lot of time spent on the front-runners (Martin, Wikler, O'Malley) contrasting with each other. A lot of time for candidates with very little support from DNC members.

Q: Will you pledge to appoint more than one transgender person to an at-large seat, and that the pick reflects the diversity of the trans community?

Every candidate but Faiz Shakir raises hand.

Shakir explains why he didn't raise hand: "I am frustrated with the way we use identity to break ourselves apart... we find that these caucuses, councils focus on what separates us out, not what brings us together."

Martin and Wikler agree on one of the final Qs, about financial transparency. Wikler: "Let's start with auditing every consultant contract that we've got."

Q: Would you support a Muslim caucus or council? Would you give every council an executive board seat? Would you give each caucus two seats at exec board?

Once again Shakir alone in not raising hand.

Paul: Not a good idea to form a Muslim caucus without a Jewish caucus.

Shakir on the Muslim caucus Q: "Bring those identities to the problems we need to solve. How do we get Muslims organized in mosques to support Democrats? Not get pats on the head for being a various identity."

Williamson uses closing statement to say Dems need to gird to fight fascism. Paul uses it to criticize the protesters again, saying this is what many people associate with the party.

"When we let people scream over us, we look weak."

O’Malley on the protesters: “I didn’t feel terribly disrespected. The audience might.”