The Daily Beast Podcast - No Time for Discussion: VP Harris Is Now Top of the Ticket

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

VP Kamala Harris was endorsed by nearly every major Democrat on Sunday but some are still scheming behind closed doors. The New Abnormal is here to make the case for being unanimously coconut-pilled. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, Danielle. Hey. We were all sitting at home and we were bored. And we said, you know, let's do a little recording. Yeah. Maybe something will happen. No, we are here with a special recording. I refuse to say the phrase, I'm going to say it just to let you know.

I refuse to say it. Emergency pod. Emergency pod because we are living in what, Andy? The new abnormal. As you probably know if you're listening to this. President Joe Biden has dropped out of the race for this year's election. And he has endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris. My take on this is, I don't know if it's ultimately going to be good or bad.

We'll find out in four months. I think we reached the point where he had no choice. And by that, I mean, it's just too many people in power were telling him he needed to get out. I am very glad that he quickly endorsed Kamala Harris. I am very glad that Democrats seem to be lining up to endorse her and support her. And Danielle, you and I have both said over and over and over again that if Biden were to drop out, it has to be Harris. And I don't think we can emphasize that enough.

Yeah, I will start off by saying that I stand by all of the things that I have said leading up to this historic moment, which is that Joe Biden did not leave this race out of his own volition. He did so because he was forced out by establishment Democrats, who I believe, whose nonstop noise and chatter fed the polls, which fed the demise, right? I say that to say that I also want to draw an incredibly stark contrast to who Joe Biden is as a man and as a lifelong public servant, instead of holding on to power, did heed all of the warnings, did heed whatever he felt and did a lot of soul searching and decided to step aside? Because unlike Donald Trump, who once he has power again, will never give it up,

Joe Biden recognized the gravity of this moment, and he's also sick with COVID. at this moment and said, you know what, I'm going to step aside, but I'm going to do so while endorsing my vice president, who, by the way, America chose, right? So we went through the primary process and we chose the Biden-Harris ticket. And so to offer up anyone else other than Vice President Kamala Harris is not going to fly. So I appreciate the fact that former president Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came out with a rousing endorsement of Kamala Harris. I appreciate the Progressive Caucus led by Primaia Jayapal in the House. And the Congressional Black Caucus has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. I think that the

endorsements need to rein in like I think there needs to be a fucking downpour. Yep. And then I believe that we need to do everything within our power to, circle the wagons to put up the barricades because the amount of racist, misogynist, vitriol and danger that Vice President Kamala Harris will now be under threat of is going to be like nothing we've ever seen in our fucking lives. 100%. It's already started. It started before Joe Biden dropped out with, you know, the DEI vice president stuff and everything. But yeah, It's going to be completely out of control, I would imagine, for the next four months.

I want to read something that Mediba Denny, who I had on the pod a little bit ago for her unbelievable book called The Originalism Trap, something that she posted on Blue Sky, because I really think it does sum it up. She wrote, a woman at the top of the ticket with a post-Dob's electorate, a black woman versus a white supremacist, a former prosecutor versus a current felon, a co-heaval. young person versus an incoherent old person. Now we have a contrast, a contest, some new doors are open, LFG. I think that has to be the attitude we want, whether we think, you know, Joe Biden should have dropped out or should have been pushed to drop out. It doesn't matter. He's out now. You know,

we can litigate that all we want, but nothing is going to change the fact that he's out now. And along the lives of what you were saying with the endorsements coming in, as of now, I think we have not heard from President Obama, which is okay. My guess is that will be coming very soon. If any other quote unquote serious Democrat throws their hat in the ring here, they need to be shunned. Yes. And they need to be shunned by the party. They need to be shunned by the voters. They need to be shunned across the board and basically told basically what kind of happened to Dean Phillips when he decided he wanted to running its Biden in the primary and pretty much instantly, you know, destroyed his future with the Democratic Party. That's what needs to happen here. And I don't care who this person is.

if it happens, and hopefully it won't happen. Hopefully what we will see is the rare instance of cats actually being herded and all the Democrats coming out and saying, hey, Camel Harris is, she's it. This is our nominee. End of story. Yeah, 3,000 percent, like I said, I want to see every single Democrat whose name has been bubbling up, whether through their own kind of, you know, polling that they're doing to see whether or not they can cut mustard, that everyone shut the fuck up.

And that it is Kamala and whoever she chooses as a vice presidential pick. That the murmurings can be about who the vice presidential pick is going to be, but who the top of the ticket is, that is decided. And people need to get on fucking board with that. I said this before and I'll say it again. This country is just as racist as it is, it is just as misogynistic. and 53% of white women did not vote for their own in 2016. Instead, they voted for a pussy-grabbing criminal.

So I pray to God that everyone else learned their goddamn lesson of where we could have been if President Hillary Clinton had happened and do not make the same mistake again. And so I like everyone from Whitmer to Newsom, to Shapiro to whomever, I want all of it done and silenced, y'all can be in line for whatever number two is. But my assumption about the vice presidential pick, it will be a white man. And that is just like it will be a white man from the Midwest,

and that's what they're doing. I can't imagine a world in which there is a two-woman ticket. I can't imagine that world. Maybe I'm wrong because we are living in the, new abnormal. So I have really no idea. No, I agree with you there. You know, sort of for the same reason, I don't think it'll be Shapiro because he's Jewish. I mean, look, we already got Kamala's married to a Jewish man. And so I just feel like it will be a white Christian man. You know, I know J.B. Pritzker's name has been thrown around and I've seen some others. I also think someone like Gretchen Whitmer

is smart enough to know that first of all, she should not run. against Kamala. Ultimately, I suspect that most of them know that they shouldn't run against her. And so, as you said, the only question should now be, who is she going to pick for vice president? And there's really no rush. I mean, up until the convention, I think she can, you know, she can vet people. I don't think she needs to make any kind of announcement, you know, in the coming week or anything like that. I guess technically she can't. She's not the nominee. And they're going to have to figure out how to work that out. But however they do that, it needs to be made clear as soon as possible that even if she's not yet the official nominee, she is the de facto nominee. And nobody needs

to challenge that. Yeah. I don't imagine a world in which in three and a half months we're able to beat Donald Trump. Let me just like say that. That being said, it is increasingly less likely the more time that Democrats spend pontificating and horse racing and doing bullshit rather than linking arms and saying this is what we're moving forward with. And like every surrogate is out in the streets. Every, you know, head of a local Democratic Party is out in the streets. Everyone is on air. The messaging is solid. Like there can be no more mistakes. There can be no more public. airing of dirty laundry from this moment on. If that happens and the polls begin to turn in our way, and I say that as somebody that does not put a lot of stock in polls, but the way that Biden was

bleeding support in the cities was to me one of the biggest wake-up calls that came this morning, right? And so I think that if Democrats can get in lockstep, If they can do what Republicans have done for a convicted felon and alleged rapist and grifter, if we can manage to do that and have a robust and like star-studded, bold, brilliant convention, that may be the Hail Mary that we need. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe I'm a little.

I'm not used to being more hopeful than someone. Oh, wow. Andy. I like this for you. I like to be a little more hopeful than you on this. I'm not saying she's going to beat Donald Trump. I think she has a very good chance of beating Donald Trump. I really do think that.

And I don't know, you know, maybe I've lost it. But I think a lot of that is going to depend on, well, first of all, it's going to depend on all the things you said and that we've been saying it's going to depend on the party rallying completely behind her and not countenancing any splinters. It's going to depend on her. If she gets out there and she's an energetic campaigner, which she absolutely can be. and if she gets out there and draws an instant and sort of stark contrast between her and Donald Trump, which again, she is more than capable of doing, she just basically has to bring her A game.

If she brings her A game, I think we have a shot. If we get some of that, you know, sort of early on in her vice presidential career, her sort of weird elocution and stuff like that, that's not going to bode well. But look, she's a former prosecutor. She is used to making a case. So if she campaigns up to the level that I believe she's capable of, then I do think there's a decent chance come November. I mean, I will tell you, you are more hopeful than I am just because as a black woman living in America, I don't put much past Americans. And so do I think that she can campaign 150%?

Do I think that she is articulate and clear as fuck? Absolutely. Do I think that now Donald Trump is the oldest candidate for president that we have, the most incoherent and a fucking criminal and he's going up against a prosecutor? Yeah, I think that Republicans should absolutely be worried in that regard. And as we're talking right now, more endorsements are coming in. Breaking news is that Representative James Clyburn, Jim Clyburn, is set to endorse the vice president. And if folks remember, Clyburn is the reason why we got Biden in 2020 because he came out full-throated when Biden's campaign was on a, you know, on life support and won him South Carolina.

so this is not to be understated that Clyburn is throwing his support behind Kamala Harris. And I think that with the Clintons, Clyburn, like you're looking at establishment Democrats, I just saw some nonsense about where is Barack Obama? I don't think that Barack Obama needs to do anything in this particular moment. I think that everyone else does, though. Yeah, for sure. And look, like I said earlier, I have absolutely no doubt that we will get a public statement from former President Obama in the coming days.

I'm certainly not one of the people going, Where's Obama? He'll be there. I do want to point out one person who has declined to endorse Kamala Harris at this point. And that is the Democratic chairman in New York State, Jay Jacobs. Jay Jacobs, you may remember, is so bad at his job that he almost cost us the House. He has come out and said that he is asking all delegates and party officials to hold their powder and not speculate or endorse before we've had an opportunity as a delegation to convene remotely

this week. Go fuck yourself. Honestly, this guy has done more to turn New York purplish than any Republican ever has or ever could. He is the best New York State Democratic chairperson the Republicans have ever had. He has spent his whole career punching left and yelling at anybody in the party who is to his left, which is a lot of the party, by the way. So I think we're seeing a stark contrast between this absolute party hack and the people that you are pointing out, the James Clyburns, the Clintons, the Jayapal's, and people like that. So yeah, I think this is good because it's going to give us some clarity. And Jay Jacobs, people like that, or particularly him, should have been out of a job, if not before, then certainly after the 2022 elections. And this is going to give us

some, you know, some very good clarity as to just who the people are who, who, who, At bottom, really don't care if Donald Trump wins in November. Yeah. At the end of the day, I think that what we're seeing right now, and I mean, my God, Andy, aren't you just excited for this week ahead? Like, is it just me or is it titillating? But as we're seeing one by one, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has just endorsed the vice president, Barack Obama.

released a statement and his statement was on gratitude to Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden, and he kept it pushing. So what I think is the most important thing is everything that we are seeing, which is let all of the very loud groups of Democrats that have been parading up and down that they wanted Joe Biden gone. Let them be the first to get in line and let Democrats create the most robust convention moving forward and let it be like the excitement that everyone said was missing and is needed. So we have a month in one day. We have a month in one fucking day to get our shit together. Amazing. I would like to see all the shit together. I would like to see all the shit together in one week bowl before the convention.

And I guess I don't really care if it's the night before the convention starts or if it's earlier. I think the earlier, the better in terms of getting our shit together and just being like, yeah, Kamala Harris is at the top of the ticket. And I just, you know, the idea of some kind of open convention producing good results at the voting booth just seems to me wrong. And I understand why, you know, a political journalists who want nothing more than something exciting to write about are salivating at the prospect of an open convention. I just don't think it's good for the party and for the party nominee if we have to

sit through nights of the convention just determining, you know, who it's going to be. I think it's better to have a unified front from day one, from minute one of the convention. So I just, I just hope the Democratic Party pulls it together at least enough to do that. Let's pray about it. You know, because right now, I guess because pundits need punditry, the attacks are coming on social media for Barack Obama, which for those that I just like, you would do best for yourself and your career not to do that. Those are my thoughts on trying to drag Barack Obama any fucking place. It's so stupid.

Is maybe don't do that. It's just so stupid. It's so stupid and unnecessary. And I hope it's just randos on Twitter or whatever and not like people with large followings who are supposed to be respected. Also, just quickly, Senator Tim Kane just endorsed Kamala Harris. So the endorsements keep coming in. Remarkable play to be the vice presidential nominee again.

Because that works so fucking well the first time, which was who is Tim Kane? People say that now. Yep. Yep. If you try to ask people, and I include myself in this, who Hillary Clinton's running mate was, there are very few people that will come back quickly with Tim Kane. Hope you enjoyed checking out this episode of the new abnormal. We're back every Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday.

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