meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Slate News

What Next: Best Of 2022 | The Michigan Democrat Who Said “Enough”

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.66K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2022

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Michigan state Senator Mallory McMorrow went viral in April for striking back at an extreme characterization made by a Republican colleague. The video of McMorrow’s speech—viewed over 14 million times—tells a bigger story about how national political rhetoric is affecting local political debates. But is the senator really demonstrating how to reset the terms of debate? Or is she just one more person who went viral for speaking to her echo chamber? As summer winds down, we're replaying some of our favorite episodes from this year. This episode originally aired on May 3, 2022. Guest: Mallory McMorrow, Michigan state senator representing Grand Oak and the suburbs north of Detroit. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello, ho, ho! Here's an important message from Network Rail for anyone who's travelling by train this Christmas and New Year.

0:08.0

We'll be working over the festive period to make improvements to the railway. Most of the network remains open, but some train services will be affected from Sunday the 25th of December until Monday the 2nd of January.

0:22.0

So, to keep your festive plans on track, please check before you travel at nationalrail.co.uk slash Christmas.

0:30.0

Hey everyone, this week we are replaying some of our favourite episodes from the last year, episodes that seem even more important in retrospect.

0:39.0

Today I'm sharing a conversation from back in April. At the time, Michigan State Senator Mallory McMoro had just gone viral for her striking response to being labeled a groomer by a Republican colleague.

0:51.0

Going into midterms, a lot of Democrats are going to face the same choice McMoro did this spring. They'll need to decide how hard to fight. All right, here we go.

1:07.0

So Senator McMoro, you've been really, really busy. Do you feel like you have stepped off of the rollercoaster yet?

1:15.0

Oh my goodness, no!

1:17.0

Michigan State Senator Mallory McMoro has been doing interviews non-stop since April 19th. That's when she tweeted out a video of herself.

1:28.0

Thank you, Mr. President.

1:30.0

In it, she is standing on the floor of the Michigan Senate and she is delivering a speech calling out a Republican colleague for using the increasingly alarmist language of the modern conservative movement.

1:43.0

I didn't expect to wake up yesterday to the news that the Senator from the 22nd District had overnight accused me by name of grooming and sexualizing children in an email fundraising for herself.

1:58.0

This speech has more than 14 million views.

2:03.0

So I sat on it for a while wondering why me? And then I realized because I am the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme because you care about that the president called you.

2:16.0

He did, and I missed the call.

2:20.0

Because I was putting my daughter in a bed and didn't have my phone in the room, which is incredibly embarrassing, but he left a voicemail.

2:26.0

Well, did he literally leave a voicemail like, hey, it's President Biden.

2:29.0

Oh, yeah, an actual, an actual voicemail and clarify. He said, you know, hi, it's Joe Biden, the president, as if I wouldn't know.

2:38.0

Pretty funny.

2:40.0

The president was calling McMoro because this speech tapped into something for a lot of people, a brewing anger at conservative smear campaigns and a sense that McMoro's words gave Democrats a template for calling those smears out.

2:56.0

You know, he just said, thank you. He said, you said everything that needed to be said and you said it beautifully.

3:04.0

And he kind of joke that he's been doing this a lot longer than I have.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.