Who was that excited anti-abortion celebrant at the White House?
November 15, 2020 8:18 AM Subscribe
On election night, I caught part of a live NPR interview with, if I remember correctly, an anti-abortion activist who was partying at the White House election night. The interview was pretty incoherent and I can't remember the person's name, nor can I find a transcript online of election night coverage. Anyone hear this or remember who it was?
I was driving home on Nov 3, 2020 at about 10-10:30 pm. Like a masochist, I turned on NPR and listed to Lulu Garcia-Navarro and Ari Shapiro talk about returns so far. At some point, they or another host began an interview with a super excited anti-abortion activist. (They may have had additional ideologies but anti-abortion was what I remember most strongly.) The conversation was difficult to hear, due to background party noise and excitement, and the person's certainty that with the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett and the inevitable reelection of Trump, abortion and other important issues would be decided by states instead of the federal government.
Or something like that! It really was difficult to hear/understand most of it. The interviewer cut the segment short, saying, "Well, we're going to end this now, because it sounds pretty exciting on your end and it's difficult to hear you, so...byeeee, etc." It was demoralizing to listen to because I'd spent all day election judging and I had hoped for a clean and decisive Democratic victory in Congress and for Biden. It didn't affect the eventual outcome or the votes, and it still doesn't, and maybe I just want to know whether this person caught covid at the party so I can be all, too bad for YOU, in my head, by myself. Or maybe I just want to keep better tabs on the young spokespeople who hold views so completely opposed to mine.
Tl;dr, who was this activist partying down the airwaves on election night, unaware of their coming (and presumably partial) disappointment?
I was driving home on Nov 3, 2020 at about 10-10:30 pm. Like a masochist, I turned on NPR and listed to Lulu Garcia-Navarro and Ari Shapiro talk about returns so far. At some point, they or another host began an interview with a super excited anti-abortion activist. (They may have had additional ideologies but anti-abortion was what I remember most strongly.) The conversation was difficult to hear, due to background party noise and excitement, and the person's certainty that with the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett and the inevitable reelection of Trump, abortion and other important issues would be decided by states instead of the federal government.
Or something like that! It really was difficult to hear/understand most of it. The interviewer cut the segment short, saying, "Well, we're going to end this now, because it sounds pretty exciting on your end and it's difficult to hear you, so...byeeee, etc." It was demoralizing to listen to because I'd spent all day election judging and I had hoped for a clean and decisive Democratic victory in Congress and for Biden. It didn't affect the eventual outcome or the votes, and it still doesn't, and maybe I just want to know whether this person caught covid at the party so I can be all, too bad for YOU, in my head, by myself. Or maybe I just want to keep better tabs on the young spokespeople who hold views so completely opposed to mine.
Tl;dr, who was this activist partying down the airwaves on election night, unaware of their coming (and presumably partial) disappointment?
Response by poster: KZSE (101.9 FM) out of Rochester, MN.
posted by pepper bird at 10:35 AM on November 15, 2020
posted by pepper bird at 10:35 AM on November 15, 2020
Response by poster: (Er, that's the MPR station that was broadcasting it.)
posted by pepper bird at 10:36 AM on November 15, 2020
posted by pepper bird at 10:36 AM on November 15, 2020
I have a couple ideas about how one might find this information (full disclosure, none of them have panned out so far).
First, a lot of NPR stations live-blogged Election Night, and one of them might have mentioned this person's name (there might be a transcript, too, but I've yet to find one, and the audio doesn't seem to be available at NPR). Also, about 100 guests were at the White House on Election Night, and there may be a list of them somewhere. Also also, there's been a lot of coverage about people at Trump events who contracted coronavirus, so, if she did, she's probably appears in an article somewhere.
If none of these worked, one could also search for prominent anti-abortion people with some connection to the Trump administration, hoping that someone's name jumped out. This would include people like Abby Johnson and Patrina Mosley.
(Although I'm not a person who does things like this, one might also tweet at Garcia-Navarro or Shapiro and ask them.)
posted by box at 12:20 PM on November 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
First, a lot of NPR stations live-blogged Election Night, and one of them might have mentioned this person's name (there might be a transcript, too, but I've yet to find one, and the audio doesn't seem to be available at NPR). Also, about 100 guests were at the White House on Election Night, and there may be a list of them somewhere. Also also, there's been a lot of coverage about people at Trump events who contracted coronavirus, so, if she did, she's probably appears in an article somewhere.
If none of these worked, one could also search for prominent anti-abortion people with some connection to the Trump administration, hoping that someone's name jumped out. This would include people like Abby Johnson and Patrina Mosley.
(Although I'm not a person who does things like this, one might also tweet at Garcia-Navarro or Shapiro and ask them.)
posted by box at 12:20 PM on November 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I heard this too, on WAMU. Just here to confirm it’s not imagined. I didn’t catch her name, but she works at an organization described in that interview as working to get pro-life women elected.
posted by OrangeVelour at 7:59 PM on November 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by OrangeVelour at 7:59 PM on November 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
Best answer: i didn't hear the interview when it aired (I was too anxious to listen to live coverage on election night).
Could the person you heard have been Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List?
posted by virago at 5:48 AM on November 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
Could the person you heard have been Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List?
posted by virago at 5:48 AM on November 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Virago, I think that must be it! Scrolled through her twitter feed and she was at the WH party. Susan B. Anthony list rings a bell, too—although I thought the FRC might’ve been it at first.
Thanks for humoring a disgruntled this-reality-based lib, guys.
posted by pepper bird at 5:20 AM on November 18, 2020
Thanks for humoring a disgruntled this-reality-based lib, guys.
posted by pepper bird at 5:20 AM on November 18, 2020
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posted by pepper bird at 8:19 AM on November 15, 2020