Democrats from around the country are converging in Chicago this week at the Democratic National Convention to formally nominate Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket.
It represents a dramatic turn from where the party was just a few weeks ago, before President Biden stepped aside. He’s expected to kick off the convention tonight.
But Phil Boaz says pro-Palestinian protesters there could end the Harris honeymoon. Boaz is a columnist with The Arizona Republic, and he joined The Show along with editorial page editor Elvia Díaz to talk more about it all.
LAUREN GILGER: Elvia, I want to start with you, and kind of set up the DNC in Chicago for us. What does this moment represent to the Democratic Party, given what has just happened in the last several weeks, even? Polling numbers are looking good for Kamala Harris. Her rallies are packed. They’re talking about joy. This has been quite a honeymoon.
ELVIA DÍAZ: Yeah, it has been. But at this point, I don’t think it’s a honeymoon. I would call it that if the polls were flat or if Kamala Harris was behind, but she’s not. So, yes, this is going to be a huge party for Democrats. And, you’re correct that this is a very, very different party from a few weeks ago, where Democrats were calling on Biden to step down, to step aside.
And he did, and he opened the door for Kamala Harris. And now you know what I see? I see Democrats now that are disciplined, they are orderly. And they have united behind Harris, who’s making history as the first Black and South Asian person to lead a major ticket. So it is an important moment.
GILGER: OK. So let’s turn to you then, Phil. You say there is something that could end this honeymoon phase for Harris. We saw a preview of it even when she was here in Glendale not too long ago: of pro-Palestinian protesters at her rally here. What happened then?
PHIL BOAS: Well, what happened was that there was a disturbance in the crowd, and it was small, and it was the pro-Palestinian faction within the Democratic Party or on the left side of American politics. And the crowd very quickly shut them down. But they’re back, and they’re already protesting in Chicago. And they’re going to be a challenge for the Democrats.
And we could talk about that a little more. But I’m getting to something that Elvia said, and I agree with her: The honeymoon is over. And I’m not sure that a lot of people noticed it, that the honeymoon with the national media ended on Thursday/Friday, Kamala Harris presented her economic plan. She came out of the cocoon for a few hours and laid down this plan for price controls on groceries.
And it landed with a thud. All of the national platforms that Democrats trust were coming out and really ridiculing this plan that she had put out. One of the first out of the shoot was the Washington Post. Their editorial board panned it as gimmicks. But a really powerful column by the Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell — she came out and said, “It is hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is.” She said, “If your opponent claims you’re a communist, maybe don’t start with an economic agenda that can accurately be labeled as federal price controls.” And then others piled on after that.
And this is not the conservative press. This isn’t Fox News. These are the New York Times, the Washington Post, the people that Democrats generally trust.
GILGER: Let me get your take there, Elvia. How big of an impact do you think that kind of messaging, the kind of lack of press conferences that Harris is doing, the sort of slow rollout — as Phil’s kind of pointing out there — of real policy from the campaign. Is this going to be a problem if she doesn’t speed this up and directly address the media and answer those type questions?
DÍAZ: I think it’s going to be a problem for media like us, but it’s not going to be a problem for the rest of America. And look, she was only nominated, as we were saying, a few weeks ago. So she’s getting her foot, and she’s defining herself to the American people. And it’s not like she’s not talking to America.
She’s going directly to to voters, to everyone. And so, no, I don’t see that as a big problem. And I mean, Phil is right in terms of the criticism about her policy agenda, the first big ones that she, outlined last week. But just look at her counterparts.
And before I go there, I do want to say yes, of course both candidates need to have a policy and agendas, and both agendas should be scrutinized very carefully by the American people, including us.
But look at Donald Trump. All he has done is demonized her, attack her race, attack her laugh, her persona. So is that the agenda that we are OK with?
GILGER: Let me bring this back to the conversation about the protests that could happen in Chicago this week. We’re more pro-Palestinian protesters, probably outside of the Democratic National Convention this week. Phil, do you think that that’s going to be a sticking point, maybe not with the media or on the right, but on the left gor Harris?
BOAS: It could be a problem for her. It’s challenging because these, pro-Palestinian protests, they’ve they’ve already brought down three university presidents, the latest being the president of Columbia University. They could, in fact, be a problem at the convention.
GILGER: Elvia, what’s your take here in terms of Harris’s messaging on the war in Gaza and how the Democratic Party — and particularly the center kind of left Democratic Party under Joe Biden — has dealt with it?
DÍAZ: Well, very delicate. And I think that’s what she has done. I mean, I’m not worried about the protests itself, and no one should be. I mean, what’s democracy without allowing dissent, right? We know democracy is messy. But what I’m worried about is if violence breaks out on the streets. And I think Chicago, the city of Chicago has been rejecting a lot of permits precisely because they don’t have the capacity to deal with that.
So that’s what I’m worried about, not what they’re going to say and the message that they bring to the convention and to and to the administration. Look, it is important we must talk about what’s going on in the war. And eventually both Trump and Harris must deal with it. You know, this is not going to go away. Israel is an important ally to the United States, and what’s happening there is very risky. It could expand.
That’s what a lot of people are going to be looking at, whether it is peaceful, a relatively peaceful demonstration. And again, no one should be afraid of peaceful demonstration and dissent. I mean, that’s what democracy is all about.
BOAS: Here’s the real danger for Democrats. If those protests get out of control, they’re going to underscore something that is a real weakness for both Kamala Harris and for her running mate, and that is that they were pretty much asleep at the wheel during the 2020 riots. Kamala Harris was out there helping to raise money for the lawbreakers who needed to be bailed out of jail, or who she wanted to bail out of jail and to go back on the street.
And then her running mate sat on his hands as governor of Minnesota for two days as the mayor of Minneapolis begged for help in putting down the riots. They needed National Guard there, and they didn’t get them for two days.
DÍAZ: All right. And let me remind you, Lauren, that even Donald Trump was praising Walz. And the clips are there for everyone to see. I mean, back then with the riots, what Phil was talking about, he had specifically said the governor was doing a great job. So there it is. That is not to minimize the seriousness of any possible out-of-control rioting that may occur or may not — hopefully not — in Chicago. But again, there was a lot of rhetoric going on.
