"Lever Time": Dissent Will Not Be Tolerated in the Democratic Party

Deconstructed

The Intercept

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4.8 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 April 2024

⏱️ 33 minutes

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Summary

Today, we’re sharing the re-launch of The Lever’s flagship podcast Lever Time. In this week’s episode, David Sirota and senior podcast producer Arjun Singh discuss the 2024 presidential election, and the Democratic Party’s efforts to prevent a primary challenge to President Biden.

Since 2008, Democratic Party leadership have worked to suppress primary challengers and support incumbent politicians. It’s not uncommon to see the party intervene in a primary on behalf of their preferred candidate in congressional and presidential races. That mentality was on full display during the 2024 Democratic primaries, where the DNC worked with its state affiliates to ensure that, in some cases, Biden’s two primary challengers didn’t even appear on the ballot.

Given Biden’s consistently low approval ratings and now palpable anger over his handling of the war in Gaza, it raises the question: did the party intentionally prevent a proper primary from taking place because they wanted to suppress any challenges to Biden?

Sirota and Singh unpack Biden’s popularity, and look back at what happened in the 1980 Democratic primary, when Democratic senator Ted Kennedy challenged incumbent president Jimmy Carter.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Ryan Grimm here. This week we wanted to share a new episode of Lever Time with you.
0:04.8	Lever Time is the flagship podcast of David Sorota's independent news organization, The Lever.
0:09.2	If you haven't already subscribed, it's very much worth it.
0:12.8	And you can find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
0:15.8	In this week's episode, Sorota and senior podcast producer Arjun Singh discuss the
0:20.7	2024 presidential election and the Democratic Party's efforts to prevent a primary challenge to President Biden.
0:26.5	They look back at what happened in the 1980 Democratic primary when Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy challenged incumbent President Jimmy Carter.
0:34.9	And now here's the episode.
0:36.6	Hey everyone, it's David Sorota.
0:38.3	Before we get to today's show, just a brief programming note.
0:41.5	Today we're relaunching Le time with a brand new format and our new
0:45.4	senior podcast producer Arjun Singh. Arjun comes to the lever from the Washington Post. He's
0:51.4	as much an old school journalist as he is a podcast guy.
0:54.9	As you'll hear, this is going to be a more reported and more produced podcast each week,
1:00.5	where we start integrating not only interviews but also original reporting and
1:04.8	storytelling into what we bring you. As always send your feedback to
1:08.9	podcasts at lever news.com to give us any news tips, story ideas, criticism, or other feedback.
1:16.0	Okay, here we go. The first episode of the brand new Lever Time. time.
1:25.0	From the Lever's Reader's Reader-supported newsroom, this is Lever Time.
1:31.0	I'm David Sorota. Since 2008, the Democratic Party
1:35.2	machine has sold liberals on the idea that primaries are bad because they
1:40.2	supposedly weaken general election nominees.
	...

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