BHS - 8A – History of Presidential Conventions | ‘Do They Have a Case’ w/ Wayne Resnick

The history of presidential conventions. ‘Automatic’ registration would boost California’s voter rolls. What’s the downside? ‘Do They Have a Case’ with Wayne Resnick

Episode Transcript

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You're listening to Bill Handle on demandfrom KFI AM six forty. And this
is KFI and AM six forty BillHandle here on Monday morning. Who on
a Monday, July twenty two.By the way, that song that you
played, Kono that intro. Youhave to eliminate Joe Biden. You keep

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certainly you keep Donald Trump, butyou don't. You have to beep out
Joe Biden. And the reason isbecause Joe Biden is no longer a potential
nominee. Well he's no longer theabsolute nominee. And man, we're a
month out from the convention, theDemocratic Convention exactly one month starts, oh

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no exactly, oh less than amonth, because it's nineteenth to the twenty
second. Even worse than that forthe Democratic Party, they have set up
a virtual voting of the coming upearly August, where the nominee is actually
selected and then the convention merely isa party right after the fact. And

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I'll tell you why that's so importantis because this is uncharted territory. After
the election. If they move theactual election to the convention after setting up
the date of the vote according tothe rules, the party rules that both
have agreed to. And keep inmind, presidential elections are controlled by the

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parties. Okay, that's the wayit has been. Although the Constitution doesn't
talk about parties at all. Thereis no constitutional or statutory provision in which
it is mandated that the parties selectthe nominee. Really interesting stuff. So
if the virtual voting does not happen, then you're going to see Republicans go

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to court and argue that his name, that is Biden's name, must be
removed or the Democratic nominee must beremoved from ballots all over the country,
manned lawsuit after lawsuit. Here's anotherone that's going to be filed, and
that is Joe Biden has this campaignwar chest of what tens of millions of

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dollars. I don't know what's init exactly now, but let you know,
ten million, forty fifty million dollarswhatever in the war chest. And
where does that go? Does ittranslate automatically to Kamala Harris Kamala Harris's campaign.
Republicans are saying, no, ithas to be returned to the donors.

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There's a fight going on. Andnow what happens at the convention,
Well, this is the first virtualconvention that has ever occurred prior to the
actual meeting of the delegates. Atthe meeting of the delegates is when the
nomination is secured. Except coming upon a virtual meeting, it's this this

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so new stuff, and so that'swhen the formal nomination is held. The
way it works is the party controlsall of it, determines how many delegates,
determines super delegates, which means superdelegates are automatically chosen the heads of

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parties, heads of local parties involvedwith the well in this case would be
the Democratic Party that you know,the local ward leaders, if you will,
And those are automatic. Those peoplego automatically and they're not bound.
They are not bound to the candidate. They can go wherever they want.
Now usually, of course they goto the candidate that's chosen or the one

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that's been selected by the vote,And then a vote takes place within the
party and those delegates are chosen.You run as a delegate. It's great
fun. You get to go tothe convention and you get to eat,
and you get to scream, andyou go rant and rave, and you
wear the crazy hats and you demonstrateand the balloons and all that, but
the delegates always go for the potentialnominee, always go for the nominee who

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wins the primaries. Now, arethere any rules regarding primaries? Absolutely none.
The parties can determine how many whenthey meet, how the nominee is
selected. I mean it is wideopen. And if you look at the

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history of nominations of candidates, primariesdidn't exist. The primary as we know
it today didn't come into being untilnineteen sixty eight when Hubert Humphrey was the
Democratic nominee. He had not wonone primary and he became the nominee.

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And at that point both the Democratsand the Republicans said, Okay, this
isn't going to work. Why becausethere's so much horse trading. If there
isn't a primary, is if thereisn't a person that wins effectively wins the
nomination before the convention. This thingnow has party bosses, delegates and or

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the people that run delegations right thehead of the delegation. They're now horse
trading and ballots are voted on.Now are there ballots today? Well,
yeah, you vote now. JoeBiden is going to get the nomination.
There's no question unless he resigns DonaldTrump. I mean, when did we

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know that he was going to getthe nomination? Early early days and he
wiped everybody out in the primary,So that was a given. That's that
is the way modern primaries, That'sthe way modern nominations are are are done.
It's not simple. What's going tohappen next month and actually a couple

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of weeks from now, and thatis the convention, the Democratic National Convention.
Now that Joe Biden has withdrawn,he is done. He is not
the nominee. It's because of theintense pressure that was building and building after
his performance at the debate. Imean, the guy just collapse, imploded,

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and the argument he's too old,he can't keep a sentence together,
he loses track of where he's going, what he's saying. That was amplified
and so he's too old argument andunfit well, not unfit well, I
guess so in many ways unfit becausehe just doesn't have it anymore to be
president for another four years. Thatgained a lot of traction, and the

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Democrats, the leadership of the DemocraticParty were able to and we're talking about
people in Congress, were able toconvince him to bail out. Well,
that is a legitimate decision. That'sa good decision. I don't think many
people disagree with that. Okay,So now what happens at the Democratic National
Convention? All right, no onehas won the primaries, so they're coming

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in with the delegates not bound toanyone. It is an open convention.
Now, going back in history,the modern convention, the way the rules
go didn't happen until nineteen sixty eight. Let me give you an example.
John F. Kennedy when he wasnominated for president in nineteen well nineteen fifty

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nine, became president nineteen sixty.The convention was here in Los Angeles,
by the way, I went asa little tiny kid, and I'll never
forget that. It was the coliseum. My parents took me there and we
watched JFK be nominated. Well,behind the scenes, he didn't win enough
primaries to get the nomination, becauseyou need a majority of the delegates to

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get the nomination from a party.And so now the horse trading started and
it was a bunch of people weregoing for it. The last two that
were left were JFK and Lyndon Johnson, and it was a fight, and
it was Robert Kennedy actually, whowas able to do enough horse trading with

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other delegates, other state delegations thatwas able to put Kennedy over the top,
and Johnson agreed, and he reallysucked it up to get the nomination
for president. He went from speakerahead a majority of the of the Senate
to vice president that has zero power. And JFK made absolutely sure that john

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and had no influence on the administrationwhatsoever, just sits back. Johnson's only
job, or any vice president's onlyjob, is to be there in case
the president can't be, the presidentincapacitated or dies, and he is president

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of the Senate, which means theonly time there's a vote is when there
is a tie. That's it.And very rarely it does something come down
fifty to fifty on one side orthe other, so that vote becomes almost
never. So what happened there,Well, there was that horse trading.
What's going to happen at this conventioncoming up? Well, there are no

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delegates that are that are pledged.Now, is Kamala Harris going to get
it? Yeah, she has itbecause there really is going to be no
horse trading because immediately upon Biden's resignation. Kamala Harris got it. He said,
I'm supporting Kamala Harris. I suggestKamala Harris. All the major Democrats

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said, we're all for Kamala Harris. She got fifty million dollars in donations
immediately. And so you're not goingto see. We could have seen a
great convention where man, we didn'tknow it would come out of it.
And to give you an idea whenthere is no front runner, when there
isn't an automatic winner, it usedto be that a ballot would take place,

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there would be votes. You know, how many for Kamala Harris,
how many for Joe Munchin who isnot running. By the way, no
one else has, no one elsehas actually entered the fray. To give
you an idea of how long itcan take in terms of the ballots where
people are just going back and forthand no one has the nomination. If

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you go back to Calvin Coolidge,and this was nineteen twenty I think it
was or nineteen twenty four, therewere one hundred and two votes before Calvin
Coolidge was selected one hundred and two, and finally on the one hundred and

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third vote, he got the nominationand he won it. A vice president
does nothing. Teddy Roosevelt, forexample, when he was McKinley's vice president.
Of course McKinley was assassinated. Hehad gone from the governor of New
York being the most dynamic governor thatNew York ever had, and he went

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to being a vice president doing zero. And that's unfortunately the way it happens.
It used to be that the presidentnominee and the presidential nominee didn't select
the vice president. That was doneon a separate vote, and quite often
you would have two completely opposing politicalfigures who hated each other, didn't talk

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to each other. And in recenttimes that was changed to the presidential nominee
then selects the vice presidential to bea part of the tickets changed so dramatically.
Well, here is what's going tobe interesting. I'll tell you there's
not going to be much interest.It could have gone really crazy, it
could have gone terrifically, could havebeen wide open with the brokering back and

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forth and the ballot votes, andno one gets it specifically, it's not
going to go that way at all. Unfortunately, it's not history. It's
not going to repeat itself, eventhough it's an open election, and that
is who is Kamala Harris going tochoose as her vice presidential nominee? Who
is she going to bring on theticket. One of the front runners is

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Newsome? Is he going to getit? I don't think so, because
she doesn't need him. She's gotCalifornia. She's a California native. So
he does nothing. So she hasto go to a swing state, much
like JFK pick Lynn and Johnson,who he never liked, because JFK needed
Texas and that's where Johnson came from. And if JFK did not have Texas,

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he would not have won the election. So we'll see where she goes
with that, because that's gonna bea political choice, clearly. Just this
great stuff. Okay, it's time. And by the way, you can
just go on the band listening tothe show, do they have a case
with Wayne Resnik every Monday morning?Good morning, Wayne, good morning?

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All right, all right, herewe go. These are two good ones.
So you got a guy and he'sgot a house and it's on a
big piece of property and it's nextdoor to his brother who has a house,
and his brother hangs out with somenear dwells. And one day his
brother calls him and he says,oh, oh, these guys are coming
over to steal your stuff, sohe chases them away. Now, a

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couple of weeks later, he seesthe same looking vehicle. It's a dark
SUV with tinted windows. And hesees a darksuv with tinted windows driving slowly
down this long private street to hishouse, and then it turns around and

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drives past him. He assumes it'sthose guys coming back to screw around some
more, and he just happens tohave a shotgun and he just happens to
fire it at the back of thiscar and hits the bumper. And it
turns out that it's not those twoguys. It's two federal agents doing an
investigation into thenir dwells. So thisguy now is brought up on attempted murder

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of federal agents charges and he says, wait a minute, I didn't know
they were federal agents. And thejudge said, as you don't have to
know, too bad, and hegets convicted and he goes up on appeal
and he says, wait a minute, wait a minute, what is going

(15:09):
on here? I know that youdo not, at least always have to
know that you're shooting at federal agentsto be convicted of this crime. I
know that sometimes you have to knowthat you're shooting at federal agents to be
convicted of this crime. So Ishould not be convicted. And the government

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on appeal says, yes, here'sthe exception when when you have to know
once in a while it could happen. This has been hypothesized in the court
decisions that you have undercover agents thatthey don't identify themselves and they're doing something
that would legitimately make you think forcemight be used against you, Like they're

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there are a raid and they've gotguns out, but they're completely playing clothes
and they don't addifiers. That's notwhat happened here. They were in a
suv driving away. So you're thegovernment says, so in this case,
you don't have to know. That'sbeen clear. What do you think,
Wow, Okay, Depending on thecourt cases and or statute, his argument

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that I had no idea actually hassome merit, except for the fact if
it doesn't matter, and that isthe point. If it doesn't matter,
if it's just bad luck on yourpart, that's it. It's just bad
luck you were there. That's likethe eggshell skull concept in negligence that we

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were taught in law school. Youcan hit someone lightly with a hammer and
there isn't much damage. If that'ssomeone has an eggshell skull and the hammer
goes through his or her head,too bad, You're liable for everything.
Just bad luck on your part.So I am going to think that under

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these circumstances. Now, I'm guessingbecause it got on either way. I
don't think it depends on the courtcases, and it depends on statute,
and it's probably court cases. Iam going to say that the appeals court
said, because he had no ideaat all, I think that the attempted
murder on federal agents is inappropriate.And he gets off. And what did

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the court say? Well, seewhat you what you surmised is what I
would surmise and what probably any reasonableperson would surmise. However, turns out
there's a long history going all theway back to the congressional intent behind this
statute, to numerous court cases,including at the Supreme Court, who's said,

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because of what Congress was trying todo, which is to have a
federal remedy. When federal agents areassaulted, you do not have to know
the intent that must be proven isthat atend you intended to assault the people.
But that's not have to know.And there is that one exception.

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I said, if they're really doingsomething that you do not know and it
makes you feel endangered and it's selfdefense in that point, that might get
you off. But since all thesetwo agents were doing is driving away in
an suv, that doesn't help him. He is convicted still, okay,
a little deeper. So I wasnot correct, but could have been correct.

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Could I don't think unless I don'tthink unless you had done a bunch
of research into it, all thatyou could that you would ever reach the
conclusion any normal person if they justdidn't know that would I think? Agree
with you? All right, fairenough, thank you for helping me worm
my way out of that one,and really appreciated any comeback. Yeah,

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any time, great, thank you? All right? All right? Put
on your solicitation for prostitution hat ohyeah that I know cold or okay,
So you know, if you arefound here illegally and you can be removed,
there is an opportunity to apply fora cancelation of your removal. But

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you have to meet certain requirements,and one of the requirements is you cannot
have been convicted of a crime involvingmoral turpitude. So here comes a guy
that's his situation, and the crime, and the crime of moral turpitude is
solicitation of prostitution. He argues,Maybe, once upon a time prostitution was

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moral turpitude, but it isn't anymore, and therefore his crime should not be
considered a crime of moral turpitude.Now, the legal deafine in the fourth
circuit where this happened. For amoral turpitude is it has to be a
crime with behavior that shocks the publicconscience as being inherently based, vile,

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or depraved. And he argues,Number one, there are some places in
the United States where prostitution is legal. Number two, there's been a long
debate about whether prostitution should be decriminalized, and the fact of the debate alone
means this is no longer considered sowrong that it shocks the conscience of the

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community and being violent, debased inall of that, and that, and
therefore it should not be considered nowa crime of moral interpretude. That's what
he says. That's what he wants. What do you say? Okay,
Well, I say to him,no way, Jose. Maybe I shouldn't
say that because it's an illegal alienbut just because certain jurisdictions say it is

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legal. And he would never beconvicted, by the way, if he
was in one of the counties inNevada, for example, where it's legal,
he cannot be convicted. But overreaching, that is federal law. And
if you are convicted of this crime, it really doesn't matter because it is

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a moral turpitude crime in and ofitself. It is considered the criminal part
of it is soliciting prostitution, andthat still is considered number one of crime.
Solicitation of prostitutes considered a crime,and moral turpitude is written all over
it. Even the judges who havejust come from connecting with a hooker on

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the way into work, right,they stop by Santa Monica Boulevard, they
take a few minutes, thank youvery much, and coming to court and
they have to rule its moral gerbitudeif he was convicted, and they actually
have no choice, Wayne, Imean, I think they could have had
a choice perhaps if they wanted tosay in an appellate Court decision that more

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people are cool with prostitution these days, and so soliciting for prostitution a lot
of people wouldn't really think, youknow, to ill of you. But
instead they decided to lay out whysoliciting prostitution is still reprehensible and vile.
For they have different reasons. Youknow, you might be exploiting the prostitute,

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or it might be that there's anunequal power dynamic, but anyway they
basically say. What they basically sayis, you know what, it's still
pretty filthy and wrong. Right,So sorry Pal, goodbye, Okay,
all right, Wayne, thanks much. We'll catch it next Monday. And
as I said a few minutes ago, I am taking phone calls for Handle

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five to two zero eleven fifty.No breaks, no commercials, weather,
none of that. So I gothrough them pretty quickly. And of course
I'm known as mister Patients in manyparts of the world, so I zip
through these pretty quickly eight seven sevenfive two zero eleven fifty in just a

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moment. Tomorrow we start all overagain five am with Amy, and then
Petros is filling in for Neil Thisweek, This is KFI AM six forty
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