People want someone ‘who will fight back’, says Obama White House senior director

We’re joined by Nayyera Haq, who was a senior director in the Obama White House administration.

Matt Frei: You were here last night, you saw the speeches – your old bosses. And?

Nayyera Haq: I think America and the world missed them. We were reminded about what they did for us in a very key moment in our country at that point. We were coming out of the 9/11 crisis, the idea of ‘America’s involved in all of these wars’. And Obama brought the sense of what a future could look like. We had this pandemic, a domestic insurrection, lies and cheating and the idea of democracy and rule of law being torn apart under Trump. While Biden helped stabilise – bring us back to a sense of normal. This was the moment last night where we felt there was a connection with what Democrats can do and what they will do with Kamala Harris.

Matt Frei: Can she, Kamala Harris, bottle that spirit that we saw last night and use it to her own advantage? She is not them.

Nayyera Haq: She is not them. her oratory is not what she’s known for. The Obamas are once in a generation, two people who are very, very compelling speakers. That said, there is a whole operation and machine ready to go for Kamala Harris. She’s already served as vice president. She’s ready to be commander in chief. As I said, at this point, an empty suit would still be better for Americans than Donald Trump as president today.

Matt Frei: Having both the Obamas speak as well as they did last night – I don’t think anyone’s denying that – probably not even Donald Trump. Does not raise the bar very high – that by comparison, she sounds a bit flat?

Nayyera Haq: It’s a good thing for everybody that we have a day in between the big speech tonight. We’re going to be seeing the vice president nominate Tim Walz, who was a very different character than the Obamas, very different than Kamala Harris. The high school football coach, a teacher. He’s the guy that you wanted to turn to when you were a young student looking for advice about life. His wife, also a teacher. Just wonderful salt of the earth people. All of these types of people are part of the Harris Walz Coalition. It’s not people with privilege. As the Obamas said last night, the coalition is not people who had the affirmative action benefit of failing forward.

Matt Frei: But every time you see Hollywood, and the Obamas, perform like this on stage, a lot of Americans feel talked down to. They feel they’re left out of the party. How do you bring them on side?

Nayyera Haq: I think that was the difference we saw last night. President Obama was the one known to be more intellectual, Michelle was the one who talked about feeling and grief and what it has been like to grow in these last eight years – not only as a country, but those of us who became mothers in the last year, those of us who started families, who tried to buy houses, who lost family in the pandemic. That sense of ‘I see you, I see all of you’ is part of why there’s such energy about the Democratic ticket.

Matt Frei: But what was so fascinating last night, especially in their takedown of Donald Trump, which might have landed everywhere in this country, was that this is a personal family feud between the Obamas and the Trumps. That’s how this started with the birther campaign in 2012.

Nayyera Haq: Well that’s how Trump started.

Matt Frei: I know, and then he responded. He made fun of him. He made fun of him again last night. Is that going to end well for the Democrats, that deflation of Donald Trump?

Nayyera Haq: Have you noticed what’s written on the steps as you walk up at the convention halls, the signs that are going out around? It’s, ‘When we fight, we win’. That has been what a lot of folks who are party loyalists, and even folks who are unaffiliated right now, they want to see that the Democratic Party is able to offer somebody who will fight back, who will stand up.  Not just say, ‘I’m rolling over in civility’, I’m going to normal my way through this’. They were funny, they were punchy. But they were not mean spirited.

Matt Frei: Bill Clinton tonight as well, as someone else from the past – a previous dynasty. Is that too much baggage that people are being reminded of? Too many Clintons?

Nayyera Haq: Kamala Harris will be breaking ground with who she is, where she comes from. Everybody who can show – from the establishment, from different parts of the coalition – that they truly believe, and they have to convince us that they believe so more people will believe,  that’s part of the theme of the whole week. It is indeed a passing of the torch to a new generation.