Tangle - Harris’s closing argument

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a speech at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., that was billed as the closing argument of her campaign. Harris delivered the speech at the same site as former President Donald Trump’s address to his supporters on January 6, 2021, which preceded their march to the U.S. Capitol. Harris’s campaign chair, Jen O'Malley Dillon, said the location of the address was meant to “crystallize the choice in this election” for voters. Ad-free podcasts are here!Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of this podcast that they could subscribe to — and we finally launched it. You can go to tanglemedia.supercast.com to sign up!You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story ⁠here and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.Check out Episode 7 of our podcast series, The Undecideds. Please give us a 5-star rating and leave a comment!Take the survey: How does Harris’s Washington, D.C., rally impact your voting decision? Let us know!You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.

From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, the place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul. And on today's episode, we're going to be talking about Kamala Harris's closing argument, her final speech. Yesterday, we covered Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden,

which was basically his final speech, I think, his final closing argument. And today, we're covering Harris's. Before we get into that, I do want to let you know that I'm offering my closing thoughts tomorrow in our Friday edition newsletter. If you want to receive that in written form, you can subscribe and become a member. These are members-only posts on our Friday editions. Or if you want to listen to that, you can subscribe via the podcast. A reminder that you can do that by going to tanglemedia.supercast.com. And that's a good way to become a paid member to the podcast where you get ad-free podcasts. And then you also

unlock things like the Friday edition tomorrow. All right, with that out of the way, I'm going to send it over to John for today's main topic, and I'll be back for my take. Thanks, Isaac, and welcome, everybody. Here are your quick hits for today. First up, police investigating two fires at ballot boxes in the Pacific Northwest found devices at both scenes marked with the words Free Gaza. The perpetrator of the attack is still at large. Number two, Vice President Kamala Harris attempted to distance herself from a recent comment made by President Joe Biden that suggested supporters of former President Donald Trump were garbage, saying she strongly disagrees with any criticism of people based on who they vote for. Number three, the U.S. real gross domestic product, or GDP, increased at an annual rate of 2.8% in Q3 of 2024, after increasing 3% in Q2 of 2024. Consumer spending, exports,

and federal government spending were the primary drivers of the increase, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Number four, rainstorms and flash flooding have killed at least 95 people across Southern and Eastern Spain. And number five, a House panel referred former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to the U.S. Department of Justice for potential prosecution for allegedly lying to Congress

about his role in a COVID-19 report on nursing home deaths. Good evening, America! Good evening, everyone. Good evening, and thank you for taking the time out of your busy lives. Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. So listen, one week from today, you will have the chance to make a decision that directly impacts your life, the life of your family, and the future of this country we love. On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a speech at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. that was billed as the closing argument of her campaign. Harris delivered the speech at the same site as former President Donald Trump's address

to his supporters on January 6, 2021, which preceded their march to the U.S. Capitol. Harris's campaign chair, Jen O'Malley Dillon, said the location of the address was meant to crystallize the choice in the election for voters. In the speech, Harris framed her candidacy as a chance to turn the page on Trump's dominance over the past decade of U.S. politics. For too long, we've been consumed with too much division, chaos, and mutual distrust, and it can be easy then to forget a simple truth. It doesn't have to be this way, she said. The vice president also recognized the unique nature of her campaign, having replaced Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket after he ended his candidacy in July.

While acknowledging that many voters are still getting to know her, Harris said she is well-equipped to serve as president after a career in public service. Much of her speech focused on the potential consequences of a second Trump administration. Harris suggested that Trump would target his political enemies, move to restrict abortion access nationwide, repeal the Affordable Care Act, and cut taxes for the wealthy. She also compared the stakes of the election to those faced by early Americans during the American Revolution, referring to Trump as a petty tyrant. On policy, Harris reiterated her campaign's promises to address price gouging, limit the cost of prescription drugs, make housing more affordable, and offer tax credits for families raising children. On immigration, she pledged to work with Congress to pass an immigration reform bill that includes a path to citizenship

for migrants, but also said she'd work quickly to deport those who crossed the border illegally. Harris did not mention Israel or Gaza, though many in attendance reportedly held signs protesting the war. However, she did vow to strengthen America's global alliances while casting Trump as an easy mark for authoritarian leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yesterday, we covered Donald Trump's closing argument to voters from Madison Square Garden. Today, we'll take a look at responses to Harris' speech

from the left and the right, and then Isaac's tape. We'll be right back after this quick break. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.

All right, first let's start with what the left is saying. The left mostly praises the speech, arguing it captured the stakes of the election. Some say Harris presented an optimistic vision for the future of our country. Others question her campaign's decision to frame the election as a referendum on Trump. The Washington Post editorial board said the speech expressed seriousness

about tackling seemingly intractable issues. In a presidential race in which the two major candidates have occasionally agreed on some key policies, Ms. Harris drew a sharp contrast between herself and former President Donald Trump with an optimistic tone, a message of inclusion, and a commitment to the nation's democratic institutions, the board wrote. On the ellipse, she reiterated her desire to secure the southern border as she promised to pursue comprehensive immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for those such as the Dreamers,

undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. The Biden-Harris record on migration is a real vulnerability for the vice president, and she cannot run away from it. But her measured approach, not mass deportations, is the most practical solution. Ms. Harris has at times struggled to explain how she would be different from the unpopular Mr. Biden. This has led her to propose some bad policies, such as a federal crackdown on price gouging. But Ms. Harris's big picture message remains clear. Optimism versus pessimism, the board said. Voters have heard Mr. Biden and before him Barack Obama campaign on breaking the

fever in Washington, only to watch politics become more polarized and government more gridlocked. Voter patience is running thin, which is one reason Mr. Trump is mounting such a strong bid this time. But that does not mean his vision is the only way. Ms. Harris's closing argument Tuesday suggests she gets that. In Bloomberg, Nia-Malika Henderson wrote, Harris's lip speech rejected fear, division, and chaos. Harris's three-month campaign has been something Americans have never seen in modern history. The vice president has been underestimated at every turn, yet she has delivered each time in moments big and small. All the while, she has contended with an uneven playing field shaped

by racism and misogyny, Henderson said. Add to that a press that has been intent on both Sazerisms, false equivalency, and ducking long-held traditions like endorsements, and it's clear how difficult Harris's campaign has been. As she said in her speech, this has not been a typical campaign. Yet for undecided voters, she tried to make the stakes plain, reintroducing herself and laying out policies that would make raising kids, caring for an elderly loved one, and buying a home more affordable. She recalled her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, sitting at the kitchen table like so many Americans, struggling to figure out how to pay the bills, Henderson wrote. Now it's up to voters to decide if they want to make progress, particularly social progress,

by joining other countries that have already elected women leaders. They must choose between Trump, who is running on a dark, disturbing vision of a country in decline, and Harris, who is running as the joyful warrior pledging to unite the country. In Vox, Eric Levitz suggested Harris's closing message might be a mistake. Harris has played clips of Trump's most authoritarian remarks at her rallies, called him a fascist on national TV, and released an ad focused exclusively on the threat he poses to liberal democracy, Levitt said. All this represents a departure for Harris, who had focused more on conventional political issues such as abortion and taxation early in her campaign. Many Democrats believe her new message is a mistake, and they're plausibly

right. To be sure, their case is counterintuitive. Common sense dictates that when running against a Hitler-admiring authoritarian, it's wise to emphasize that your opponent is a Hitler-admiring authoritarian. But judging by the available data, swing voters are largely unmoved by such assertions, however objectively true and important they might be, Levitz wrote. This said, Harris's closing argument remains defensible, but only for warnings about Trump's authoritarianism complement her economic message rather than overshadowing it. Alright, that is it for what the left is saying, which brings us to what the right is saying.

The right says the speech demonstrated the myopic nature of Harris' campaign. Some argue Harris emphasized fear over hope for the future. Others suggest her core message fell flat. In the New York Post, Michael Goodwin argued that Harris failed to distinguish her candidacy from Biden's. Kamala Harris had one job Tuesday night, to separate herself from the last four years of a failed administration and make a persuasive case that the difference between that and the next four years under her leadership would be like night and day. Achieving both goals would pose a challenge to even the most gifted and sincere candidate. Because Harris is neither, her claim that she's ready for a promotion fell flat, Goodwin wrote.

fell flat, Goodwin wrote. Although her speech was predictably heavy on the dangers Donald Trump supposedly represents, it was otherwise good enough to serve as a closing argument, and her delivery was nearly flawless. She sounded strong and looked almost as confident as when she delivered her acceptance speech at the party convention in Chicago. But a lot has changed since then, and Tuesday offered no escape from the two shadows looming over her. To this day, Harris cannot say what she would do differently from Biden, which simultaneously makes her a blank slate and a full partner in a disastrous term. Even the setting of her speech, the Washington Ellipse, with the White House in the background, was a reminder of that baggage, Goodwin said. The other shadow looming over her, of course, is Trump,

whose presidency was a roaring success compared to the last four years. That Harris couldn't escape the shadow of either Biden or Trump tells me that she has run out of fresh arguments for her election. In the Baltimore Sun, Armstrong Williams wrote about the telling message in the speech. Harris went after Donald Trump and Republicans almost immediately. In one of her first sentences, she stated that this vote will be one of the most important votes that you will ever cast. She then immediately accused Trump of being a leader who would rule with chaos and division, Williams said. It's desperation and it's telling.

Harris doesn't have anything good to say. She relies on stoking fear in her voters, nothing more. Of course, like with all of her speeches, it was far less about policy and more about the threat that Trump and Republicans posed to the nation. In fact, over the 30 minutes she spoke, the majority of it was deriding and spreading harmful rhetoric about what the nation would look like if Trump won. If Harris's closing argument showed us anything, it's that she's willing to go as low as she possibly can to win this race. That's it. In reason, Eric Bohm said Democrats changed candidates but didn't shift

their message. Trump's threat to democracy became the dominant theme of Biden's campaign until it came to a screeching halt this summer. When Harris ascended to the top of the ticket, Democrats made an attempt to differentiate her from Biden. Her campaign was about joy. We were relentlessly informed during the Democratic National Convention. It was turning a page, not looking back, going forward, Bohenbrun. Yet here we are in the final stretch of the campaign. Harris finds herself not embracing joy but pushing fear. This revision underlines Harris's inability to define herself and her campaign. She did not have the chance to run a typical campaign, it's true, but Harris has had months to stake out her positions.

Instead, her campaign has spent much of that time backing away from unpopular stances she took in the 2020 primaries, Boehm said. If all the talk about Trump as a threat to democracy has not definitively swung the needle in Harris's favor yet, why would one more speech accomplish much? Voters have heard this argument for two years and have presumably already made up their minds

whether to vote against Trump on those grounds. All right, let's head over to Isaac for his take. So that's it for what the left and the right are saying, which brings us to my take. I've never thought that Vice President Kamala Harris is a great politician. When I say that, I'm thinking of the stereotypical things that make good politicians. They're good on their feet. They're good orators. They have good instincts reading the political winds. Plenty of prominent Democrats right now do fit this description.

Pete Buttigieg, Nancy Pelosi, Gavin Newsom, just to name a few. But Harris? Not so much. This doesn't mean Harris can't be a good legislator or a smart person or even good at her job. There's a lot more to being vice president or a senator than just being a quote-unquote good politician. But being a good politician helps you get elected. Harris is even good at some of the traditional politician things like debating. We saw how well she did against Donald Trump. Still, I think we've seen this reality set in over the last few months. When Harris jumped into the fray, she immediately seized the momentum. She was up in all the swing states controlling the narrative and reintroducing herself to the public. Democrats got an injection of enthusiasm, cash, and support. On August 15th, I said she was in

the driver's seat. The energy was palpable and real, and that initial pop still might be enough to carry her to victory on election day. But could anyone argue that she's in a better position now than she was two months ago? I don't think so. I think her time in the limelight, her interviews or lack thereof, and her pitch to voters as she tours the country have eroded her initial support, not galvanized or solidified it, which to me made her closing remarks that much more striking. As I was watching Harris's final speech, my dominant thought was, why didn't she give this speech a hundred times in the last two months? It was a good address. It wasn't too long. It wasn't wishy-washy. It

appealed to moderates and it put the focus on economic issues and an opponent who is historically unpopular. It was in some ways traditional and Biden-esque. Talk of American history, the pride she takes in the job, her vision for bringing America together. As I've said over and over, the biggest difference between Trump in 2016 when he won and Trump in 2024 now is that his campaign is so much more focused on him and less focused on you. It's a parade of grievances and promises for revenge rather than a powerful vision for changing your life. I think if Trump were running his 2016 campaign, he'd be a lot for reelection,

but he isn't and Harris knows it. Here's what she said, quote, Donald Trump has told us his priorities for a second term. He has an enemies list of people he intends to prosecute. He says that one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers on January 6th. And on day one, if elected, on day one, if elected, Donald Trump would walk into that office with an enemies list.

When elected, I will walk in with a to-do list full of priorities of what I will get done for the American people, end quote. It's a corny line, but it's smart politics. Her campaign even finally came up with a half-decent response to the question of differences between her and Biden. Somehow this took the campaign months and of course came in a scripted moment, but they finally got there.

Here's what she said, quote, I've been honored to serve as Joe Biden's vice president, but I will bring my own experiences and ideas to the Oval Office. My presidency will be different because the challenges we face are different. Our top priority as a nation four years ago was to end the pandemic and rescue the economy.

Now, our biggest challenge is to lower costs, costs that were rising even before the pandemic and that are still too high. I get it. I will enact the first ever federal ban on price gouging on groceries, cap the price of insulin, and limit out-of-pocket prescription costs

for all Americans. End quote. Harris emphasized the fact she spent most of her career outside Washington, D.C. People love outsiders. Hit some notes about preserving democracy and beat the drum on freedom, which is the one thing she's been doing consistently

since the day her campaign launched. On the whole, it was an effective speech, perhaps the most focused speech I've seen her give on the campaign trail yet. Of course, it was drowned out immediately by Biden calling Trump supporters garbage and then by Trump driving around in a garbage truck. But for anyone who tuned in for a final message,

it was still effective. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of her speech was what she didn't say. There was nothing about race, nothing about gender, very little about foreign policy, and very little about immigration. This is a person reading The Room who understands that identity politics are not going to win this election and also clearly sees her electoral strengths, abortion, her record as a prosecutor and protecting democracy, as well as her electoral weaknesses, immigration, race, foreign policy. That is the stuff that makes a good speech and a good politician. The only question now is whether it was too little, too late.

We'll be right back after this quick break. The faster money and data move, the further your business can go to a seamless digital future for Canadians. Let's go faster forward together. In life, interact. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown.

When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your

province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at FluCellVax.ca. All right, that is it for my take today, which brings us to our listener question. This one's from an anonymous listener in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who said, what do you think about the Supreme Court's decision to allow Virginia to remove 1,600 people from its voter rolls?

Great question. We actually almost covered this as our main story today. I'll say this. It's complicated, actually, believe it or not. For background, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, the Republican, issued an executive order in August that directed the state's Department of Motor Vehicles, the DMV, to provide state election officials with information about suspected non-citizens. The state DMV already shares this data, but Youngkin's order sped the process up,

mandating daily reports and removing those identified as suspected non-citizens from the rolls if they could not verify their citizenship within 14 days. The Biden administration and several civil and immigrant rights groups challenged the order on the grounds that it violated the National Voter Registration Act's quiet period provision, which prohibits states from systematically removing ineligible voters within 90 days of a federal election. A federal judge in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Biden administration, but Virginia appealed to the Supreme Court. In an unsigned decision on Wednesday, the court temporarily blocked the federal judge's ruling that would have reinstated the registration of roughly 1,600 people removed under the program. So that's the story. That's what happened top level. Let me get one thing out of the way to start. I'm opposed, obviously, to non-citizens voting in our elections, and in principle, I actually support the intent behind Youngkin's order. I do have mixed feelings about this outcome, though, and I'll tell you why.

On the one hand, Virginia has a strong argument. The state argued that the order did not violate the NVRA's quiet period rule because it did not systematically remove voters from its roles. Instead, it said it reviewed each potential non-citizen registration on a case-by-case basis. Further, these individuals were flagged because they self-identified as non-citizens by checking a box on a DMV form, so it's entirely reasonable for a state to audit its roles based on this information. On the other hand, it's clear the Virginia Department of Election was not truly analyzing every voter on an individual basis. For instance, they treated a voter as matching a potential non-citizen identified by the DMV based on as little as a shared first and last

name. That's according to the federal government's filing in this case. That sounds pretty systematic to me. Local Virginia outlets also found numerous cases of Youngkin's program removing legal voters from the rolls because they improperly filled out a DMV form. But common mistakes like that are exactly why the quiet period provision exists, to prevent relatively last-minute changes that create confusion. It's more than fair to ask why this program wasn't implemented more than three months out from Election Day. Eligible voters who are removed by mistake can still both register and cast a provisional ballot on Election Day, so they still have a path to vote. But in my view, the predictable issues that arose from a program

implemented so close to the election undermine an otherwise reasonable effort. The good news is that legal voters aren't being purged on a massive scale, and hopefully these voters can get their situation sorted before or on election day. All right, that is it for your listener question today. I'm going to send it back to John for the rest of the pod, and I'll see you guys tomorrow for our members-only Friday edition podcast. Don't forget, you can get that podcast by going to tanglemedia.supercast.com and becoming a subscriber, or by going to readtangle.com and subscribing to our newsletter, where we'll also be publishing my closing thoughts on the 2024 election. Otherwise, we'll see you guys Sunday. Have a good one. Peace.

Thanks, Isaac. Here's your under the radar story for today, folks. A major U.S. Department of Transportation rule went into effect this week that requires airlines to give automatic refunds for passengers whose flights get canceled or significantly delayed, promising to change the future of air travel. A delay of three hours or more for domestic flights and six hours or more for international flights triggers this automatic refund, as does any change to a passenger's arriving, departing, or connecting airport, an added connection, or a switch to a less accessible plane for those with a disability. Additionally, customers will not need to request a refund. Airlines must automatically return their money in full. If this rule had been in effect last year, American, United, and Delta would have each doled out an estimated $1 billion in refunds. Morning Brew has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description. All right, next up is our numbers section. The estimated number of attendees at Kamala Harris'

speech in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday was 75,000. The number of times Harris mentioned Donald Trump in her speech is 24. The number of times Harris said freedom in her speech was nine. The number of times Harris said abortion in her speech was two. The number of times Harris said immigration in her speech was two. The number of times Harris said economy in her speech was one. The total number of early votes cast in the 2024 election as of October 31st is 60,603,354, according to the University of Florida Election Lab. Harris's net favorability rating on July 22nd, the day after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race, was minus 13.4, according to FiveThirtyEight. And Harris's net favorability rating on October 30th was minus 1.5. All right, and last but not least, our Have a Nice Day story. Each year, airlines in the U.S. damage or destroy 10,000 to 15,000 wheelchairs and other mobility devices.

However, Delta Airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Department of Transportation recently announced plans to allow passengers to fly while seated in their wheelchairs. Sophie Morgan, an advocate for accessibility on flights, said this is the first step on a long journey towards change. Now we call on all airlines to adopt this invocation and change the world for wheelchair users. USA Today has this story and there's a link in today's episode description. All right, everybody, that is it for today's episode. As always, if you'd like to support our work, please go to readtangle.com and sign up for a membership. You can also now sign up for premium podcast memberships, which gets you ad-free daily podcasts, Friday editions, Sunday editions, and much more by going to tanglemedia.supercast.com. A reminder that in tomorrow's Friday edition,

Isaac is going to share a list of his closing thoughts heading into election day. This is going to include a revisiting of his final predictions, the best case that Harris will win, the best case that Trump will win, and a bunch of other random observations about how the final days are playing out.

A reminder that Friday editions are for Tangle members only. So if you haven't signed up yet for a newsletter subscription or even now a podcast subscription, it's a great time to do it, especially as we're heading into election day. We'll be right back here on Monday.

For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John Law signing off. Have a fantastic weekend, y'all. Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited and engineered by Dick Thomas. Our script is edited by me Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Dink Thomas our script is edited by Ari Weitzman, Will Kabak, Bailey Saul and Sean Brady the logo for our podcast was made by Magdalena Bokova who is also our social media manager

the music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75 and if you're looking for more from Tangle please go check out our website at readtangle.com. That's readtangle.com.