Shy Voter or Vocal Voter? (with Errin Haines)
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With less than two weeks until Election Day, editor-at-large of The 19th* Errin Haines joins Sam to talk about news coverage leading up to the most significant election in recent memory and whether or not shy voters will make a surprising difference. They talk about the importance of being open to the best idea in the room and how Errin sticks to a decision once she’s made it—unless it’s for a last-minute flight change—and how the biggest decision of her life was actually made for her—when her mother adopted her as a baby.
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Transcript
SPEAKERS
Errin Haines, Samantha Bee
Samantha Bee 01:22
I love the idea that you’re never too old to try something new. And while I strongly believe that everyone should start voting when they are 18, if you don’t have your chance until you’re 81 that works too take it when you get it. You may have seen the recent story about the 81 year old in Georgia who just voted for the first time in her life. You know why it took her over 60 years to start voting? Because her husband didn’t want her to. When her husband passed away last year, Betty Cartledge decided she was going to become a voter. Oh, man, do I have some serious choice words for the men who have controlled their wives and controlled their votes. Voting is power. Whoever tries to suppress a person’s vote, whether it’s your husband, your father, your governor or even your Republican presidential nominee, that’s a special kind of cruel early voting has begun, please make sure you vote early or have a plan to vote on Election Day. Voting is a serious, serious and important and fun choice, actually, and I hope that you will use it.
Samantha Bee 02:47
This is Choice Words, I’m Samantha Bee. My guest today is journalist Errin Haines, editor at large of The 19th a wonderful news organization named, of course, after the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. So please, ladies, use that power regardless of what the men in your life say or think. So take a listen and make good choices.
Samantha Bee 03:18
Hi.
Errin Haines 03:19
Hey, y’all how’s it going?
Samantha Bee 03:21
Great.
Errin Haines 03:22
Oh my gosh, no thank you for having me. I’m super excited. Love this podcast. Love everything that you’re doing. Keep it all up.
Samantha Bee 03:29
Yes, cute. The feeling is very mutual. We are so excited to talk to you today. Oh, look at your set. Your setup is just, just top tier.
Errin Haines 03:39
You have. You don’t want to see what’s outside this box.
Samantha Bee 03:42
Oh, no. We never want to see what’s outside the box that’s not ever alive. Outside this box is just chaos. It’s total chaos. Yes, absolutely.
Errin Haines 03:52
Much like this election.
Samantha Bee 03:56
Oh, we are going to talk about the election, because what the heck?
Errin Haines 04:00
Oh, my goodness, he’s making fries at McDonald’s.
Samantha Bee 04:03
He’s making fries with hired people. He’s making fries in a closed down McDonald’s, sure.
Errin Haines 04:10
In a closed McDonald’s where he’s not actually serving real customers. Like, what a joke. There’s a metaphor in there somewhere for what all of this means, also talking about Arnold Palmer’s junk. I don’t want, I don’t want to be here. That’s where we are in this election. I’m so sad.
Samantha Bee 04:24
That’s why we’re having you on so that we can talk about Arnold Palmer’s junk pretty much the whole time.
Errin Haines 04:30
Oh, I’m sorry. My signal is going bad.
Samantha Bee 04:33
Computer slowly shuts down. I know that you are incredibly busy right now.
Errin Haines 04:40
Oh my gosh. No, boy, I appreciate the chance to be thoughtful about where we are in this moment in our democracy.
Samantha Bee 04:47
So they are, well, I like to start the show by talking about, you know, just choice in general, and kind of all the choices that you made that got you to this place or choice. You know how, what kind of relationship you have to making decisions for yourself, and I do think about making decisions for ourself in light of also the election that’s coming up, and will we have that freedom, right?
Errin Haines 05:13
Yes, you can know this is an election about the choices that we will be able to make going forward.
Samantha Bee 05:18
Entirely, if you, if you do, you, are you good decision maker? Are you an assertive decision maker? Are you a person who Mauls for a long time?
Errin Haines 05:28
I am not. So you know how you have those people that are like, Band Aid peelers or band Aiders? Yeah, I’m a band aid Ripper. Like, yes, once I’ve made up my mind, like, there’s I’m I’m pretty stuck to that decision. It is hard to move me off of that.
Samantha Bee 05:42
Really, very decisive.
Errin Haines 05:44
But it’s weird though, because I’m also open, especially, like, editorially, like, I’m open to the better idea if it should come along.
Samantha Bee 05:52
Oh, I love that. I feel like that’s something that we share, because I love to hear a better idea than the one that I had.
Errin Haines 06:00
Right, so, like, yes, my decision is made unless a better decision is there to be made, right.
Samantha Bee 06:08
Right, like, who can beat this? Who can beat this decision?
Errin Haines 06:12
Now I will say that probably the only exception to this is traveling, because I hate flying so and also, I got spoiled living on the East Coast and, like, living that Amtrak life. It’s like, there’s always another train. I can always change this. So, yeah, same day change. That’s like my favorite phrase. I’m the worst, if I can, change a flight, because I just haven’t gotten my shit together. Like I’m I’m definitely that person. That decision is always, always in flux.
Samantha Bee 06:39
That one’s a little more fluid. Yes, I love that. Because I feel like I don’t know I’m like that too. I like to make a change. I like everything has to be refundable.
Errin Haines 06:50
Exactly in that part, I am like, Yes, but No, I hate, I hate standing in line behind people who don’t know what they want to eat. If I’m at a restaurant, I’m just like, What the fuck you’ve been staring at this menu for 30 seconds. Don’t you know what you want to eat yet?
Samantha Bee 07:03
Like, let’s go. I have a friend who, when she goes into a coffee shop, she and she’ll be listening to this episode too. When she goes into a coffee shop, it’s like she’s never tasted coffee or thought of coffee before in her life. Every time it’s a new.
Errin Haines 07:16
We need a different line for those people, okay, those of us who know what we want should be able to get in another life, or maybe that’s what the mobile app is for. I don’t know. Like, there should not be those people should not be allowed to be in line with the rest of us.
Samantha Bee 07:28
Yeah, don’t dither. We’re here for actual coffee, like this is needed in and out, in and out. Let’s go. Let’s go or get one and just like, satisfy yourself with, like, a little an espresso, and step to the side. Keep going, and I think, okay, can you think of, is there a choice in your life that you think of, that maybe hit you unexpectedly, or kind of changed everything for you in a way that maybe was was unexpected or just so consequential and you had no idea it was happening.
Errin Haines 07:59
Consequential and that I did not know was happening, yes, and that is that I am adopted. My mom adopted me when I was a little baby, when I was two months old, and that decision that she made definitely changed the trajectory of my entire life, and it is probably the biggest decision that was made for me in my whole life, when I think about the power of choice, and like, the power of somebody to make a choice that can literally change somebody’s entire life, like that is probably my main example.
Samantha Bee 08:30
Oh, that’s a very good example. Did you always know? Were you aware your whole life?
Errin Haines 08:37
I was so when I mean, my mom always kind of framed it, though, as a choice, right? Like, you know, I know sometimes the way that adoption is is talked about is like, you know, somebody. It was never like a conversation about, you know, my birth parents giving me up. It was always focused on the choice that my mom made to make us a family and so like that framing for me. You know about it being her choice that brought us together, right? Always has made me see that choice in a very positive way.
Samantha Bee 09:10
Yeah, ah, that’s beautiful and so consequential it is. Are we speaking in your Are you in Georgia right now?
Errin Haines 09:17
Yes, I am in Georgia, my home state, where I’ve just returned after being in another battleground state, Pennsylvania. I was in Philadelphia for nine years before this. So yes. I mean, you know, of course, my moving choices are solely based on the swing state potential. Of course, well, we appreciate that. Yes, here, I’m here to serve. Yes, absolutely.
Samantha Bee 09:40
If you could just look into a crystal ball and please tell us what’s going to happen in Georgia. Like, what are you feeling?
Errin Haines 09:46
Oh, I mean, look, I’m feeling a lot of energy in this state. Like, and I cannot say whether I know that that’s necessarily from one side more than the other. But like this state. Is ready to vote. Like early voting just started on October 15 in Georgia, and in the first week of early voting, we had a million people vote here, and that was, you know, across the state. So, like that is a huge, huge amount of interest in this election, right? For people who say, Oh, you know, talking about voter apathy, no, like, people are lined up. They’re ready to go. They know who they’re voting for you know, so I don’t, I don’t know who you know, these handful of undecided voters that are but like it doesn’t feel to me like they’re in Georgia, the people that are here feel like they are ready to pass the ballot. And also, I’m just thinking back to 2020 or even 2016 like I’m seeing so many more yard signs than I saw before then, like people making the choice to put their vote out there publicly, right? Like to let people know, this is what I’m doing. This is what I think you should do. I didn’t feel like we really I mean, especially in 2016 like, people were really not advertising what they were gonna do. So much. That’s definitely an energy that I feel and see here, especially a lot of the black women that I talk to, you know, they’re talking to the people in their lives. You know, I’m getting text messages from friends that normally never talk about politics, that are saying, you know, look, election day is very important. We can’t, you know, take this for granted ever. I hope everybody that is on this list is, you know, has made a plan to vote, and is, and is planning to vote right, right, like, and, yeah. So just hearing that kind of activity from people that I don’t normally hear that from, that is also kind of a new thing that I’m seeing in this cycle.
Samantha Bee 11:36
Okay, I like that. I definitely do feel like I’m actually, my biggest hope is that there are, because it is so fraught and in especially in places where, you know, people might be afraid to say, because there are definitely communities where people are like, I don’t want to say I’m surrounded by Trumpers. I don’t want to say that I actually really like Carlo, that I’m just like praying that there’s just going to be a secret force of people who go in and just defy, defy what is expected of them, and just do the right thing.
Errin Haines 12:11
Well, there was a really interesting story in early voting in Georgia. I don’t know if you saw this lovely woman in Covington, Georgia, 81 year old woman had never voted in an election before. Why? Because she just didn’t think that that was a thing that was for her. But her husband recently passes away, and after he passes away, this is her first time voting, she finally felt comfortable casting a ballot. And I was just like, wow, you know, like, this is, this is not far away, stuff, you know, in terms of gender equality and, you know, conversations around rights and who has the freedom to fully participate in this democracy? Like she didn’t necessarily think that she had that before.
Samantha Bee 12:59
Right, and I feel like it’s worth, it’s really worth reminding people that you don’t have to tell anybody, you don’t have to, there’s also that, right? That’s a choice. You don’t have to tell anybody, and you can just do what we’re telling you to do. Feel, feel free to make the right choice.
Errin Haines 13:16
Yeah, because, I mean, that’s the thing. Look, regardless of who what people are doing like Election Day. It’s supposed to be true every day, but especially on Election Day, everybody is equal, right, right? Like your vote and my vote counts the same as the president United States’s vote. It’s, you know, because one person one vote. So like, if we’re all equal on election day, like everybody should participate, we need everybody to participate.
Samantha Bee 13:40
Do you look to other do you look to other nations like, I know, you know, in India, it’s so valued the idea like your single vote, and people will just travel and travel to you to make sure that your vote happens, to make sure that you have that stamp that says, I voted, and I feel like we need a push in that direction here.
Errin Haines 14:05
Well, I mean, certainly other nations are looking at us, right? They’re very invested in this election, and they really want to know what’s going to happen. Because, I mean, this is an election about whether or not we get to have more elections, right? Like, this is an election that is testing our democracy. And so, you know, with America being, you know, putting itself forward as the leading democracy in the world, you know, we haven’t always looked like that recently. And so other countries that have modeled their democracies on ours, the idea of one person, one vote, and how democracy makes every you know, puts everyone on 11 level playing field in our elections. You know, they believe that because we that is something that we told them to believe, right? That is something that we said is the way that we do things here. So, yes, I absolutely, you know, look at what’s been going on around the world and other democracies and kind of how. What is happening in America absolutely impacts the way that they think about democracy and the way that they conduct their politics.
Samantha Bee 15:08
There’s more Choice Words in just a moment.
17:01
It seems so clear that Kamala is not centering the fact that she’d be the first woman president in the way that Hillary did, and that feels very intentional. Do you perceive it that way?
Errin Haines 18:45
Absolutely a choice. I mean, I think she’s letting others kind of say that for her, including Hillary Clinton, right who gave that speech in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. But like, look, she shows up as a black woman every time she’s on stage at a rally or doing an interview or, you know, just doing the job of being vice presidential, right, like that is the first thing that you see about her. She is a woman. She is a black woman, you know, south, south, Asian and Indian American woman like she doesn’t necessarily have to, emphasize it right, like that is who people see when they see her.
Samantha Bee 19:19
Has the traditional media. So now we have our second female candidate in three election cycles. Yeah, okay.
Errin Haines 19:26
Was that on your bingo card, Sam?
Samantha Bee 19:27
it wasn’t on my It sure wasn’t on mine. But I’m very happy for it.
Errin Haines 19:31
Here we are.
Samantha Bee 19:32
Yeah, you think the traditional media has learned anything since you’re like.
Errin Haines 19:41
I mean, I don’t know how. Yes, we have learned some Okay, there are still, you know, kind of some tropes that we have fallen back into, or that, you know, that we have taken the bait on. I also think that we don’t necessarily do a good enough job of Kentucky. Sexualizing gender, not just her gender as potentially being our first woman president, but also, you know, the way that Trump’s gender also factors into this election, which absolutely does like I mean, the former president has a very specific brand of masculinity that people are also being like, that is also factoring into how people are voting, right? So, you know, just kind of thinking about that, but also the way that, to your point, that she is talking about who she is, like not leaning into the gender or the race of it all, but really just saying I’m the most qualified person for this job, and so focusing on her qualifications, focusing on her record, focusing on what she wants to do for the American people, as opposed to kind of letting it be about the weight of history and all right, and all of that. Like, I think that, you know, that kind of framing, and also because, you know, like, she just is the candidate, because of the way that this race came together, right? So, like, the American people don’t really have time to contemplate, or maybe I’m not going to say that, because, of course, there are still people that are uncomfortable with voting for the woman, right? But like, if that is the Democratic nominee, then you’re either voting for the Democratic nominee or you’re not, like, you don’t there. You don’t have other choices on that side.
Samantha Bee 21:20
And I feel like her campaign is so clever, and how they’re also now reminding everyone that she is the one out of two candidates in this race who can complete a thought.
Errin Haines 21:32
Listen, I mean, with, frankly, with, with President Biden out of the race, like the focus on Trump’s age and potential mental acuity. I mean, that is at issue. Now he is the oldest person that we’ve ever had to run for president, and so now we ask those questions about him, right?
Samantha Bee 21:50
Okay, so tell me at the 19th what that day felt like, oh, when Joe Biden declared that he was stepping away. I mean.
Errin Haines 22:03
I know it feels like so long ago, but it was not. It was just a few months ago. It was this summer. That was just a tumultuous few weeks, right? I mean, because, you know, so many of us watched that first presidential debate, and we saw President Biden, and you know, that was an opening for people who have been calling for him to step aside, to really say, now’s the time. You know, Democrats are gonna have to make a different choice here. Yeah. But then also, kind of with that hand wringing, came a looking past the sitting Vice President to literally anybody else who maybe could be the person to replace Joe Biden, right? Like they’re like, who’s the designated survivor in this situation? And I’m like, wait, but you know, here’s this person you know, who’s literally been the understudy to this man for almost four years. Why was she not being talked about with more kind of respect for her record and her experience and her qualifications, right? So in my reporting, I really did believe, you know, eventually, that she would be the person you know, that becomes the candidate. And so then that happens. I so our newsroom is distributed. We have people all across the country, a couple of dozen states, but you know, we’re all, you know, living the slack life. Shout out to all my people that are, you know, going to work on the screen, but I was at O’Hare Airport.
Samantha Bee 23:26
Okay, just doing your best travel life.
Errin Haines 23:29
Listen national air flights. I was leaving the Republican National Convention, okay, which had been a raucous, joyous occasion, again, like think back this. That convention, happened just a couple of days after the first assassination attempt against the former presidents. He the classified documents case had just been dismissed. Like he was riding high. Republicans were riding high. There was kind of this air of inevitability around his potential return to the White House, right? And then, you know, and Joe Biden got COVID that week. Oh, my God. Like so much happened.
Samantha Bee 24:06
Hulk Hogan ripped his shirt and showed us what manliness looks like. Oh, yes, oh boy.
Errin Haines 24:13
I think I blocked that part out. But like all of that happened in that week, right? And the momentum so clearly seemed like it was, it was with the Republican Party coming out of that convention. And then we get to Sunday at 1pm and Joe Biden announces that he is dropping out, yeah. And within 30 minutes, he says, and I am endorsing Kamala Harris for President, right. I did this is the person that I want to succeed me. And it was just kind of like, whoa, because it wasn’t just that he was exiting the race, it was also that he was backing his vice president who shows up immediately after that, Hillary Clinton, and then you have all these people, her, right? Her so called rivals, who had been discussed. This people who could replace Joe Biden now they’re behind her. I mean, like, everything happens so fast, like we we are watching this in the newsroom, like, wait, like something is happening, and this person who had been discussed as maybe not up for the task, maybe not able to win. Like, no. Like, it definitely felt like you could feel the momentum shift, just in a matter of hours happening that day. And so, you know, we were ready, because we knew it was a possibility, but at the same time, yes, I mean, like, ours is a newsroom, obviously named for an, you know, the 19th Amendment. But also was born out of the 2016 election, when we were talking about questions of electability and ambition and what it is going to take to finally elect any woman to lead this country, right? So yeah, like the while we thought this was definitely something that could happen. The idea that it was happening just in the second presidential cycle that we’ve ever covered as a young newsroom, that was still a remarkable moment for us to kind of absorb.
Samantha Bee 26:14
I mean, speaking of electability, do you think that I really see indications, like in the mainstream media that they really are not capable still of covering Trump, like, you know, like the unstable, racist, sexist liar, like, I still feel like he makes a joke about Arnold Palmer’s genitalia, and it is not covered properly. Yes, not covered properly. What is the problem?
Errin Haines 26:46
You think back to, you know, the day that he came down on that escalator and announced that he was running for President, that was nine years ago, like he has been with us for nine years, and in so many ways, I think a lot of who he is, um, has been normalized, for the press, for the American people, and so when he does or says certain things that are racist, that are misogynist, some people kind of accept that as Trump being Trump, right, um, and also Just the idea that half the poppy the voting population, is continuing to be fine with these are not deal breakers for them. His behavior Right, right is not a deal breaker for them. But the idea that we would kind of continue to cover even before you had Kamala Harris as the candidate going into 2024 you had Joe Biden and Donald Trump kind of facing off in what seemed like a rematch, but like, this was not a status quo election, even with the same candidates on the ticket, like, our democracy looks very different. We’re on the other side of January 6. We are on the other side of the fall of Roe like these are, you know, this is the first presidential election since both of those things were happening and so and Donald Trump being at the center of both of those things, right? How are we not talking about him differently?
Samantha Bee 28:16
It’s physically painful to me that this seems like such a tight election.
Errin Haines 28:22
Yeah, and the polls that just came out still showing it is still very margin of error in those seven swing states that we are paying so much attention to, right right now? Yeah, no. I wonder too. You know kind of how it is still so close, how you still have, if these polls are to be believed, you know, 70 million plus people that despite kind of everything that we know, that they are definitely still very committed to the former president like that. That is, that is a true thing, given where our politics are, though. I mean, like for several cycles, you know, elections have been close. They’ve come down to, you know, just a handful of voters in a handful of states. But no, I take your point. I think because the stakes of this election feel so existential and consequential for so many people, that is the reason why they can’t understand why this particular year things might still be as close as it looks like they might be.
Samantha Bee 29:26
I just can’t believe what people’s deal breakers are. I think a lot of people don’t have deal breakers, I guess, or oh well, okay, it’s so tight. It’s as I mean, as you said at the beginning of this, it feels like chaos. It really does. I mean emotional, like, I feel it in my in my body, you know, how are you at the 19th how are you, kind of navigating what your strategy is going to be in the final weeks? Like, do you or you’re like, strategy?
Errin Haines 30:00
No, I mean, look, it is not as if we are not scenario planning at the night, right? We’re definitely thinking about all possible outcomes, and also just kind of trying to help our audience understand that we likely will not have an answer on election night, like there’s really no there’s no such thing as Election Day anymore. There’s election season, right? And there’s no such thing really as election night, but understanding that that also does not mean that someone is cheating or that something is wrong with our election process, right? So just trying to tell people keep calm and let the votes be counted, right, and that our elections are free and fair and secure like that is still a thing that exists in this democracy, right? So that is definitely one thing that we are thinking about in terms of strategy, just trying to remind people of that and explaining to people. You know, we have so many people that are coming into this process for the first time, or maybe who don’t know what the process is in one state or another that may affect how long it’s going to take for us to have election results. So like making that clear to people, because we know that the former president is already raising the specter of a rigged election again. And so there may be, you know, kind of this window where we don’t know, and what is he What? What is he filling that window with, in terms of what he’s saying, the messaging that he’s using.
Samantha Bee 31:22
Oh, boy you know, it really is not like in the movies. Is anybody I mean, I remember having we had at when I was still doing full frontal. We had a balloon drop planned for 2016 and then we could not drop our balloons, and we gave our balloons to another, different.
Errin Haines 31:40
Was gonna say, what happened to those balloons, yeah.
Samantha Bee 31:42
We gave them to I’m never gonna remember his name, because I’m 54, years old. He’s like a piano guy.
Errin Haines 31:49
Maybe blocked it out, yeah.
Samantha Bee 31:51
I’ve blocked it out, but he had a show next. Oh, it’s Harry […]
Errin Haines 31:56
You did it.
Samantha Bee 31:57
Got it, but he tape recorded his show in the same kind of building as us, and he was, they were producers of Harry Connick. Were like, we’ll take your balloons. We’re planning a balloon drop. And we’re like, take them. Is anybody planning no more balloon drops on election night? Maybe ever.
Errin Haines 32:15
It’s like this Super Bowl where the T shirts that they made go to some like, for the team that doesn’t win, they just go somewhere, to another country, and you just never know where they landed. And then you’re on vacation somewhere random, and it’s like, wait, what?
Samantha Bee 32:29
Yeah, or they have, they have a revolution, and then you get to see them on, on TV, in the in the news coverage that part. Okay, so there’s so much being made. There has so much has been made of the interviews that Vice President Harris is or isn’t doing. Yeah, why do we make such a big deal about that? I actually feel like the strategy has been quite robust. I don’t know. I mean, what’s your perspective on that?
Errin Haines 32:55
I mean, I think we gotta ask who is the we here, Sam. I mean, I think that traditional legacy media is clearly feeling some type of way about or not coming and doing kind of those traditional sit downs that a presidential candidate does. I mean, but she did do 60 minutes as vice president. She was doing a lot of that kind of press, but obviously people are paying a lot more attention now that she is the Democratic presidential nominee, I think, you know, because this was such a compressed calendar, you know, she literally has just a little over 100 days to introduce herself to the American people, yeah. And that was, I think, her clear focus, right? And the kind of outlets that we’re talking about, you know, your New York Times is the Washington Post of the world. Like those going to those places and spaces are not where she’s going to reach the people that she needed to reach to shore up the coalition that she needed to shore up, um, heading into November. But can she, you know, hit some podcasts that have, certainly, you know, a target rich audience. Maybe they’re not expecting to hear from, you know, a Democratic presidential nominee, but here she is on this podcast that you listen to with these people that you like and so sure like those people are suddenly having, you know, open to a conversation or listening to a conversation, right, with Kamala Harris that they you know, in it when they would not have encountered her necessarily otherwise in their timeline, right? So I so that is a strategy, and by the way, this is a strategy that both of the candidates are using. Donald Trump is certainly all over the mana verse, hitting every podcast that he can, you know, to talk to people about who he is and make sure that those people are voting. And Kamala Harris is doing that too now listen, would I love for her to come on the amendment and talk to me on my podcast? I also have a podcast if you don’t want to do you know, the traditional kind of print media situation, but no, I like you think about the choices that she has made and the audiences that that can. Reach when she goes on some, you know, a show like the view, and talks about, you know, Medicaid paying for caregiving. Like the audience that is watching the view is definitely like their ears are perking up when they hear her rolling out that policy. It’s not just her kind of talking about fluffy or kind of featurey type things, like she actually is going on there and talking about policy when she, you know, does Charlamagne the god, you know, she sits down with him and is talking about, you know, an agenda for black men like that is a coalition that she needs to shore up, kind of, in the home stretch. So, you know, being in conversation with him, taking questions from black men in the audience, like that, like what that accomplishes is not necessarily what she accomplishes by sitting down with one of us in the home stretch.
Samantha Bee 35:45
But she should go on the amendment I’m just saying.
Errin Haines 35:49
Agreed, I agree, I’m biased, but yes, you know. But also, like, you know, and yes, time is a finite resource and whatever. But like the way that she is blitzing everything, there’s also a part of me that says, Well, I mean, this doesn’t have to be like an either or a thing, like she can hit all these podcasts, and she could also, you know, do some of these sit downs, you know, where people are asking her kind of substantive questions about what she is going to do for the American people, should she be their next president?
Samantha Bee 36:19
Obviously, people are mostly just, like, self selecting the news, the coverage that they ingest. And I’m sure it’s very true. I’m sure it’s true for readers of the 19th as well. How does that affect your coverage? Like, do you write for the audience that you know, that you have, or are you hoping that your stories are gonna, like, bust out into the people who need to be to all the Jill Stein supporters.
Errin Haines 36:47
I mean, look, it’s both, right, like, I mean, we certainly, because so much of our coverage is focused on voters and the things that they care about, right? So we’re constantly trying to talk to talk to them about what the issues are that are motivating them to participate in our democracy during a presidential year or any year, right? Like, we want to know what the things are like, how politics is affecting their daily lives, and how that may be impacting how they’re participating civically, right, in our democracy. So there is that. But then also, yes, like, we are telling people thinks that maybe they didn’t even know they needed to know or wanted to know about what is happening in their democracy, in their communities. And then, you know, I think, I certainly do think, when we first started, we felt like, okay, we want to be a home for everybody. You know, whether they want to live here or not, like, we just want to be a home for everybody. And I do certainly still have a lot of commitment to that, just in terms of like, I do believe that as journalists, we are obligated to try to earn the trust of people who maybe have have lost faith in the media, or don’t necessarily feel like the media is speaking to or for them, and so wanting to represent everybody that is in this democracy like that still feels important and like a goal that we have to be open to those conversations, to let people be heard. Because these are, I mean, these are our friends, our family, our neighbors, our fellow citizens, right? So like all having, like the way that we leave behind, like, kind of the most honest and accurate picture of who and where we are as a democracy is by hearing from as many parts of that democracy as we can.
Samantha Bee 38:30
Right, I mean, it’s very difficult. I mean, it is very difficult to make a profit, like to stay afloat writing about the news. But there does seem to be an increased hunger, like a hunger like I’ve never seen it before for just like new innovative, new nonprofits. What gives you hope?
Errin Haines 38:52
Oh, wow.
Samantha Bee 38:53
These will have staying power. They’re so important
Errin Haines 38:57
that that’s a great question. And thanks for asking. I mean, we’re coming up on our fifth anniversary at the 19th we launched a week before the Iowa caucuses in 2020 so congratulations. I know, right? It’s a huge accomplishment. It’s deeply, um affirming, though, to have not just the support of, you know, public and private philanthropy, but also, just like so many of our members across the country who are giving $19 you know, or whatever they can to just say, keep going like you know, you all are writing about people like me, people like people in my family, my friends, that other people don’t write about that other people don’t talk to, people in the LGBTQ plus community, people in the disability community, older Americans that sometimes get forgotten about young voters, like we’re thinking about all of those different folks. And also so many of my colleagues are really bringing just kind of their lived experience to the journalism in a way that that is helping us to tell stories and center stories that other people kind of push to the side or say, this is this is kind of an also part. Of our democracy would know like this is they? These are the people that are part of our emerging majority, small d, Democratic majority, right? So when we think in terms of philanthropy, people making a connection between journalism and democracy right, like, I think post January 6, that was a connection that people were able to make much more easily, and also just the idea that supporting journalism is also a way for them to be engaged politically, right? Like the same people who might support a candidate now are thinking, Oh, maybe I need to be supporting journalists, you know, or in journalism that is committed to the truth journalism that is committed to facts and to accurate representation.
Samantha Bee 40:45
Well, I feel like, when I go to the night, I mean, it’s just, I feel like you’re really modeling what that can look like in a way that’s really impactful. It’s really important.
Errin Haines 40:55
Thank you. We vital, we are trying, and that is what we hear from our audiences every single day, and so that is, and it is affirming, right? Like we have this idea we didn’t know if anybody was gonna think it was a good idea, right? So to hear that this is journalism that is resonating with so many people across the country, to know that people can share this journalism, to have conversations, maybe even tough conversations, with family members, right? Like, no longer are we cutting our aunt off at Thanksgiving, because maybe we can show her an article and we can and that can start a conversation that maybe gets you all to a better place. Like that is meaning that is impactful in terms of how I think about the impact of journalism, and I’m glad that we’re able to do that.
Samantha Bee 41:40
There’s more Choice Words in just a moment.
Samantha Bee 43:26
Well, with so many people coming to you for their news, who do you go to like? What is your what does your news diet look like? Oh, my person who you wake up in the morning. You’re like, let’s go. The day begins.
Errin Haines 44:18
I’m in the bed scrolling her uh, horizontally before I even, you know, go get my emotional support. Cup of caffeine. Yeah. I mean, so I spent, before I joined the 19th I spent the bulk of my journalism career at the Associated Press. So that is still kind of where I start my day, just kind of seeing what the top lines are for. You know, whatever the AP is talking about is probably what most of the country is going to be talking about at this point. I’m trying not to doom scroll for the latest poll, because every day there’s a new poll, right? And that is probably definitely contributing to people’s anxiety about this election, you know, but polls are just really a snapshot in time. I’m like, the poll that matters at this point, with two and a half weeks to go and people already casting ballots, like, the poll that matters is the election now, like Election Day, like, that’s the poll that matters, right? So I try not to pay too much attention to polling. And also, it’s not really changing that much. Like we kind of, you know, the New York Times newsletters in my inbox when I wake up politico playbook is in my inbox when I, you know, by the time I wake up, the bull work is doing such great work, and I and I try to read to see kind of where they are and what they’re thinking about every day as well. Punch Bowl, because, PS, we do still have a Congress that is functioning, that is doing things the extent that they are right, like and, you know, they’re also paying attention to some of those down ballot races. So, you know, looking at their coverage of Congress and what that keeps me kind of abreast of what Congress is up to as I’ve been so focused on this election, which feels really important. It’s so much of what I get now. I mean, I am certainly a seasoned person, not one, of, not one of you youngs that may be listening to this podcast, but like social media, like, I will go to see what’s happening on Tiktok. I will certainly go to see what’s happening on Instagram, in addition to, you know, X, which, you know, I don’t know what he’s doing with that algorithm, but you know, oh my goodness. Just to make sure you know, I’m not missing anything. I have to very much diversify my social media diet to see what else might be out there that I might be missing.
Samantha Bee 46:28
Yes, it is sort of, it’s such a terrible feeling to actually be like I think I should check in with some people who I don’t agree with, nobody everyone’s talking about.
Errin Haines 46:39
But again, these like, everybody is living in this house of democracy together. So, like, Yes, what’s going on in the other rooms? What’s going on? What are people doing? What are people saying? Like, I definitely, you know, as because, by the way, when I eventually do get out of bed and go get my coffee, like I’m watching the morning shows, and I’m flipping between Morning Joe and Fox and Friends and, you know, CNN, you know, their morning show to see kind of, what are the conversations that they are having, who are the people that they’re bringing on. Like, I want to, you know, flip channels to see kind of, and also see what other people are consuming. It’s actually my favorite hobby on airplanes, is to see what? Because so many people watch the news when they’re flying. And you know what? I the thing that surprises me about that is the channel that I most often see people watching on flights.
Samantha Bee 47:32
Yeah, CNBC. It’s a lot of people watch CNBC.
Errin Haines 47:37
Yeah, and that is not a place where politics is just being endlessly discussed, right? So you’re thinking, Yes, you see some people watching Fox, maybe you see some people watching CNN or MSNBC. But, like, no, overwhelmingly, I’m like, wow, CNBC pretty popular on this flight, too.
Samantha Bee 47:51
Very popular. But then also, sometimes I look over at other grown adults and they’re watching Finding Nemo. And I’m like, interesting.
Errin Haines 48:01
Listen, Sam, I’m, listen, I’m, I’m adults. Okay, yeah. Like, I have been known to watch a Peppa Pig, you know, marathon on. They recently put SpongeBob on. I was like, wait, Bikini Bottom, yes, tap me in. I want to see what’s been happening on in Bikini Bottom.
Samantha Bee 48:21
I’m more of an International House Hunters person on a flight, if it’s a Jet Blue flight, I’m like, okay, great. We’re gonna learn about a married couple, married for 35 years. They’re gonna buy a condo in Lisbon. Let’s go try and help them pick it.
Errin Haines 48:36
And they have $5 but they need eight rooms and full location.
Samantha Bee 48:40
Oh, they want to be the by the beach, open floor, to be land, open plan, right by the water.
Errin Haines 48:47
Oh, my God. It’s like, do these people even know each other? Like, how do we have such disparate needs for the home?
Samantha Bee 48:54
100%
Errin Haines 48:55
Oh, my God, there’s, there’s an HGTV politics metaphor in here somewhere. Just, there’s somewhere in there, the voters and house hunters like there is, there’s some we need. We need to think about this.
Samantha Bee 49:07
Yes, across over pack that later. Why I don’t my kids get most of their I mean, they’re not, you know, we have a lot of we have public radio on all the time. Sure, nobody’s my job. They don’t want it, but it’s there. And I feel that they’re getting a lot of news through by osmosis, okay, because it’s present in their lives at all times.
Errin Haines 49:28
And it’s a calming voice.
Samantha Bee 49:29
This is coming just a lot of fundraising, but it’s calming, and everybody’s getting what they need by the end of the day. But they also get their news on Tiktok, and I wonder how you think that we can get because I’m not sure it’s doing the second step, which is getting people to actually vote. Like, how do we connect young people who are like, engaging online with the actual physical process of voting? Do you think that they’re connecting enough?
Errin Haines 49:58
Yeah, you know, I think we’ll see. I think it’s the people in their lives that are going to get them to the ballot box. I mean, look, I’m somebody who grew up going with my mom to vote in every single election, whether it was President or whether it was our city council members in my hometown, right? So, like, we went she, I understood that that was a thing that grown ups did, like, right? And this was, this was a responsibility that I was going to have when I became a grown up. And so, you know, three days after my 18th birthday, my mom took me to the same precinct that I’ve been going with her to for years, and I registered to vote at that precinct. And so, you know, for a while, we were on the rolls together, and she would definitely look on that list to make sure, like, if she was going to vote, she’s like, has Erin been here yet? And it’s like, oh, poll workers telling on me, great, shout out to them. We love them, but they definitely would let let her know if I’d been there, yeah, but our names were next to each other, so she knew if I’d you know already been there or not. But like that, what that did for me was like the Creating a culture and a habit around voting like as a thing that our family does right, like somebody on Tiktok is not going to be as effective as you saying to your child, well, you know, do you have a plan to vote like? What are you doing? I’m about to go vote. Do we need to go together like? That is the thing that can happen like, and if it’s not your parents, maybe it is your friends or any of the people in your lives that you are grabbing and saying, Hey, what are you doing? Are you registered? Do you know where your precinct did? Like, we can have that conversation with people. And that was the thing. It’s so funny. I can still remember too. Like, when I was growing up on election day. You know anybody who called the house that day? The first thing, you know, Hey, how’s it going? How are you doing? The second question would be, did you vote yet? Oh, and my mom’s not, you know, she’s not an official organizer or anything like that, but like she was doing the work of organizing by making sure that the people who were in her life, whoever was in you know, the friend and family tree, you know, she’s saying to them, like it’s election day, don’t forget to do your duty.
Samantha Bee 52:04
Right, I think that’s exactly it. I think what you just said, it’s like creating a habit around it. It’s a habit.
Errin Haines 52:12
This is what we do, right? Like, whether it’s our family or whether it’s our friends, or whether whoever it is, like, this is what we do.
Samantha Bee 52:19
Right, okay. Well, tell me what you’ll be doing on election day.
Errin Haines 52:25
Oh my gosh so.
Samantha Bee 52:26
You sleep, what will you what time do you wake up? What in the world does that look like?
Errin Haines 52:32
Yeah, it’s like, no, I think November 4 will definitely feel like, Christmas Eve, like I will be a nervous wreck, because it’s finally, finally, going to be here, right? I mean, this election felt so long until it didn’t like the last 100 plus days have really felt like a sprint, and now we’re finally almost here. So by the time I say that, to say that I’m also just totally running on fumes and vibes at this point. So, but I will very, I will be very excited Election day is, you know, journalism, Super Bowl, Christmas, you know, birthday, turducken, like, it’s just everything that we that we love, all happening in one moment. So, and every you know, all the work that everybody has done, whether it’s the candidates or the voters or the press like it all culminates in that moment. So I’m sure that I will wake up very excited and very ready to be at that point. And I love, I honestly, I just, I love talking to voters the whole year, but I love talking to voters when they, you know, actually come they’re on that high from having cast their ballot, right, you know, and having they’re in line with their neighbors, they participated in democracy. So kind of checking the mood on Election Day is something that I I’m just really ready to see that, because that’s something that you can’t get from a poll.
Samantha Bee 54:03
Oh, 100% I am so excited for it. I am so excited to vote on Election Day.
Errin Haines 54:09
And especially Sam. I mean, four years ago, we were in a pandemic. Everybody had a mask. They were standing six feet apart in the election line. If they were even voting in person, right? That’s maybe you did an absentee ballot four years ago, maybe you know, early, you know, you mailed your ballot in so you didn’t get to have the experience of being in line and casting a ballot. Or if you did, you know, you certainly, we didn’t even have a vaccine at that point, right? So we couldn’t be very close to each other. We couldn’t have the communal experience that is election day. So like, I’m happy that we will have that moment again in our in our policy, because I think it does. It means something in our democracy for this to be a collective community act that we, that we, I mean it we don’t have that many, you know, you watch CV on demand now, like there’s not that many things that we do as. A country together at the same time.
Samantha Bee 55:03
You’ve got me so excited, I can hear the noise makers in my head.
Errin Haines 55:07
Sam, that’s how we should feel about elections, like so, I mean, you know, you think about the last four years and how, you know, the conversation around threats to our democracy have made people fearful about voting. Voting is, you know, that’s the thing that makes us American. Like it is our national pastime. So like we should be looking forward to it. We should not be dreading it. We should be excited about getting to exercise our duty as Americans, our stickers. Listen, I love our sticker, and I have to tell you, like being back in Georgia, I’m biased, but we do have some of the best election stickers. They have a little peach on them. It’s, yes, it says Georgia voter on it, and it says, I secured my vote on the bottom. And so like people, the hashtag is, post the peach. Like that’s what people do when they have cast their ballot. The stickers, I have to say, in Pennsylvania, not not so exciting, cradle of democracy, and yet we need a better sticker. Need a better sticker. So work on that sticker. Work on that Pennsylvania. The Commonwealth needs representation in stickers.
Errin Haines 56:11
I am 100% with you.
Errin Haines 56:14
This was so much fun.
Samantha Bee 56:16
I agree. Loved talking to you. Thank you so much for doing this and all your scenario planning. Please enjoy the next two weeks. What does that even mean? And let’s I’m very hopeful, and I feel good. I’m ready. We’re ready. We’re almost there, America, we’re almost there.
Errin Haines 56:35
We’re almost there America, get it done.
Samantha Bee 56:37
Get it done.
Samantha Bee 56:43
That was Errin Haines, and I had no choice but to look up one thing we talked about, record breaking, early voting in Georgia. But we still have a ways to go before election day. I had to check how many people early voted in 2020, and it’s shocking, over 100 million. I love that. Thanks for joining us. I’m Samantha Bee and see you next week for some more Choice Words.
CREDITS 57:19
Thank you for listening to Choice Words, which was created by and is hosted by me. The show is produced by […], with editing and additional producing by Josh Richmond. We are distributed by Lemonada Media, and you can find me @realsambee on X and Instagram, follow Choice Words wherever you get your podcasts or listen ad free on Amazon music with your Prime membership.