Morning Wire - Support for Kamala Harris & Cheatle Under Fire | 7.23.24

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

Most Democrats endorse Kamala Harris, will anyone challenge her for the nomination, and Secret Service head Kimberly Cheatle criticized by Democrats and Republicans. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Ramp: "Now get $250 off when you join Ramp. Go to http://www.ramp.com/WIRE" ZBiotics: "The drink before drinking with ZBiotics. Get 15% off your order with promo code WIRE at http://www.ZBiotics.com/Wire" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kamala Harris rounds up support from some key Democrats and speaks at campaign headquarters, where Joe Biden was heard but not seen. I know yesterday's news is surprising, and it's hard for you to hear, but it was the right thing to do. I'm Georgia Howe. John Bickley is on vacation this week. It's Tuesday, July 23rd, and this is Morning Wire. As support coalesces around Vice President Harris, could one of her VP contenders emerge as a challenger? And Republicans and Democrats unite in their criticism of U.S. Secret Service boss Kimberly Cheedle, who says she won't resign. Do you know what Stuart Knight did? He was in charge at the time of the Secret Service.

You know what he did? Afterwards? He remained on duty. He resigned. He resigned. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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are rallying around Vice President Kamala Harris. Here to break down the latest developments is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, another turbulent day in D.C. What can you tell us? Well, in the last 36 hours, Kamala Harris has employed a sort of shock and all strategy, sending a clear message to other Democrats,

stay out of this race. The nomination is mine. She wasted no time hitting the trail, appearing for her first campaign event at Biden, now Harris headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, where she met with her new staff. Today, just right after Joe made his announcement, it was important for me to continue with his role of leadership in this office of like him, who has said for many, many, many months. And I say it today, thank you all so very much for what you are doing and what you will continue to do.

Now, as part of that effort to lock up the nomination, there are the endorsements first. The majority of Democratic governors and members of Congress have now publicly offered her their support. That list includes the party's most important power broker Nancy Pelosi, as well as would-be rivals, including Gretchen Whitmer, J.D. Pritzker, Andy Bashir, and Gavin Newsom. Second, and perhaps just as important, Democratic donors also are falling in line behind Harris. The Democrats had their largest fundraising hall in history. The Harris campaign says they brought in a staggering $81 million in their first 24 hours alone. That is a new record.

For their part, the campaign's largest PAC, Future Forward, says it also brought in $150 million. in new commitments since Sunday afternoon. Remember, a number of big money donors said they would hold off on giving as long as Biden was on the ticket, so they now appear ready to open their pocketbooks. Now, speaking of President Biden, have we heard from him since the announcement? Well, that's the thing. We haven't seen anything. Everyone is understandably focused on Kamala Harris right now, but Joe Biden is still

the president, and he will be for the next 100 or so days, but he's been totally absent from public view. The only appearance he's made in the last six days came last night during a Harris campaign event. And even then, it was just a few quick remarks over the phone. Here he is addressing his former campaign staff who now worked for the vice president. I want to say a little to Kamala. If she can hear me, I know she's going to be speaking shortly. And I want to say to the team, embrace her.

She's the best. I want to call today to thank everybody, everybody in this effort. I know it's hard because you poured your heart and soul into me. to help us win this thing, help me get this nomination, and then go on to win the presidency. But, you know, you're an amazing team, but we've got a great, great, I think we made the right decision. He went on to say that he would use his remaining time in office to campaign for VP Harris. The name has changed the top of the ticket, but the mission hasn't changed at all. And by the way, I'm not going to go anywhere.

I'm going to be out there in the campaign with her, with Kamala. I'm going to be working like hell, both as a sitting president, any legislation passed as well as in campaigning. In the days since Biden's announcement, Republicans have pressed the White House for answers on his whereabouts, with a number calling on him to resign immediately. House Speaker Mike Johnson, for example, said, quote, if Joe Biden is not fit to run for president, he is not fit to serve as president. We heard similar comments from Trump running mate J.D. Vance, who questioned how he could

justify serving out his term, while Trump himself said simply, quote, if he cannot run for office, he cannot run our country. Vince held his first solo campaign rally yesterday, speaking to a packed crowd in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio. He took a shot at Kamala Harris, who he said was not chosen by voters, but by party elites. This entire system of ours is about you've got to persuade voters. You got to win their votes. You don't decide who the president is in smoke-filled rooms with billionaires and senior elected officials. You let the people decide.

And then seconds later, he again went after Harris, this time poking fun at their now canceled debate. I was told I was going to get to debate Kamala Harris, and now President Trump's going to get to debate her. I'm kind of pissed off about that, if I'm being honest with you. Now, we've started to see the first few polls trickling in. What kind of info do we have about how Harris matches up to Trump? Yeah, well, first, it's worth stressing.

One of the main arguments we heard from Biden to tractors on the left was that Harris had a better shot of beating Trump. But the numbers are unclear on that front. In the 12 Trump-Harris post-debate polls on RCP, The vice president leads in only two. And on Monday, Morning Console released the first major poll post dropout. It had Trump ahead nationally by two points 47 to 45. Now, again, this election has been totally reset, and we expect the numbers to change,

as the VP is sort of reintroduced to the country as a candidate. But for now, it looks to be a very, very close race. Right. Absolutely. No one can take this race for granted. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime. Attention nightouts and social butterflies.

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Go to Zbiotics.com slash wire to get 15% off your first order with code wire at checkout. That's Z-B-I-O-T-C-S dot com slash. wire today. As Cabot just reported, many Democrats have followed Joe Biden's lead and endorsed Kamala Harris for president. But the big question is whether the VP will face any challengers for the nomination. Many of the contenders, such as governors Jared Paulus of Colorado, Gavin Newsom of California, and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan have already endorsed the VP. Here to discuss whether there may still be a contender out there and what it could mean for the Democrats' VIP stakes is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus. So, David, Democrats have talked about

a process rather than a coronation for Harris. What does that mean and does it require other contenders? Morning, Georgia. Yes. Even Kamala Harris herself has promised Democrats and donors that she will quote earn the nomination. But it isn't clear yet whether that means defeating other Democrats who might throw their hats in the ring. In addition to Newsom and Paulus, Josh Sapiro, governor of Key State, Pennsylvania, has endorsed Harris. And after initial reports that he might re-register as a Democrat, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin says he will not be running, but that he wants to see Harris face someone. Here's some of that. I think that a lot of people would like to see a mini-primary. That's the process. Find out

that you have the strongest candidate, whether it be Kamler or whoever else could rise to that level that everyone got, we could get behind. But now that seemed to be predetermined by President Biden. And he isn't the only voice calling for this amorphous idea of a process. Barack Obama, whose fingerprints have been all over this, has also suggested that. And unlike Bill and Hillary Clinton, has not endorsed Harris. The bottom line is, if you have a 5 to 10% chance of becoming the leader of the free world, you take it unless maybe you're worried it could destroy your future political career. It is worth noting that on Monday, former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, who ran against Harris,

in 2020 and did better, issued a statement basically saying, hey, what's the rush? So that could be something to keep an eye on. Now, could this process, and that's really the only word they'll use right now, occur without a challenger stepping up and just simply leaving the choice to the delegates? Possibly. Harris is trying to rack up enough endorsements to make her candidacy seem inevitable, but this is up to the delegates, a group of whom could certainly ban together to oppose Harris. This could even involve a campaign by some delegates to recruit candidates. And if such an effort failed to gain steam, Democrats could kind of sort of say there was, I will say it again, a process and that Harris emerged victorious from it. Now, if support coalesces around Harris,

she's going to have to pick a running mate. Do we have a shortlist yet? We definitely have a few big names. And this is very tied into the endorsements we just discussed. Arizona, Mark Kelly, who endorsed Harris on Sunday, is getting a lot of attention, as are both Paulus and Shapiro. Here's Paulus all but auditioning for the nod on Monday. Look, if they do the polling and it turns out that they need a 49-year-old balding gay Jew from Boulder, Colorado, they got my number. Most, though not all of the names are male.

We do hear some talk about Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and they're all fairly young. often with a young candidate parties choose an older running mate for balance. Think JFK and LBJ or George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, even Obama and Biden. This seems to be going more in the direction of the Clinton Gore 1992 model, which really leaned into their youth and athletic ability and vigor. And this makes perfect sense as Democrats are maybe a bit shamelessly turning to the argument that Trump is too old to be president, even though until Sunday they assured us that Biden was not. But that narrative is, of course, a bit undermined by Trump's reaction to being shot, which

certainly did not make him look old or incapable, much the opposite, in fact. Right. Well, any challenger is going to have to overcome Kamala's momentum at this point. David, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheedel was defiant during public testimony to Congress on the security failure that nearly cost former President Donald Trump his life. Here to talk about what took place in the oversight hearing on Monday is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. So Tim, Cheathel must have known this would be a rough hearing. How was she treated by lawmakers?

Well, she took fire from both Republicans and Democrats. Cheatel used her first minutes to take full responsibility for the security failure at Trump's July 13th rally. Here's part of her opening statement. The assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump on July 13th is the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades. As a director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility. for any security lapse of our agency. She insisted she will stay in her role as head of the agency, however. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle pressured her to step down.

Progressive Congressman Roe Kana of California compared Cheetah's position to that of one of her predecessors, Stuart Knight, who resigned after former President Reagan was shot in 1981. Here's some of that exchange. What's the difference between your position and what Stuart Knight did? What I will tell you, sir, is that I am dedicated to finding the answers. To what happened, I will remain on and be responsible to the agency, to this committee, to the former president, and to the American public. But is there a reason you wouldn't just do what Stuart Knight did after the Reagan assassination attempt? I believe that I provided an answer.

Now, did we learn anything new about what actually happened at the Trump rally? Not really. In fact, the director seemed very hesitant to answer many questions at all. Cheetah's consistent refusal to give direct answers irked a lot of the committee's members. Here's a taste from oversight chairman James Comer's round of questions. At any point Saturday, did the Secret Service have an agent on top of that roof? Sir, I'm sure, as you can imagine, that we are just nine days out from this incident, and there's still an ongoing investigation. And so I want to make sure that any information that we are providing to you is factual.

Okay. Can you answer why the Secret Service didn't place a single agent on the roof? We are still looking into the advanced process and the decisions that were made. And here's Cheathel, unable to tell Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona whether the attempted assassin acted alone or with help. Was Mr. Crooks acting alone? Again, I would have to refer you to the FBI's investigation. Those kinds of evasive answers from Cheeto were common throughout the rest of the hearing. Now, one major accusation that's been circulating is that Homeland Security denied the Trump

team's requests for more protection. Initially, Secretary Majorcas forcefully denied that that was the case, but the department later walked that back and indicated that maybe there was some truth to it. Was that addressed? Right. Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio asked her about that. Here's how that went. Were you guessing or lying when you said you didn't turn down requests from President Trump's detail? Neither, sir, and I appreciate the question. Was Mr. Gugliami, your spokesperson? He said he acknowledged the Secret Service had turned down some requests. I'm asking how many? A denial of a request does not equal a vulnerability. So again, very few hard answers from the Secret Service on how a gunman was able to take a shot at Trump in this massive security failure. Well, the American people

definitely are not going to let this one go. Tim, thanks for reporting. Good to be on. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.