The NPR Politics Podcast - Kamala Harris Makes Her Case: DNC Night Four

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

In her speech formally accepting the Democratic party's presidential nomination, Kamala Harris emphasized her record on abortion access and voting rights. She also painted a dire portrait of America if Trump is re-elected.This episode: political correspondent Susan Davis, White House correspondent Asma Khalid, campaign correspondent Franco Ordoñez, and senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson.The podcast is produced by Casey Morell and Kelli Wessinger. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi. Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Thank you. 22nd. And Vice President Kamala Harris gave her acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination just a short time ago here at the United Center in Chicago, where we can still hear the balloons popping. In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences, but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious. Harris made history tonight in many ways, the first black woman, the first Asian-American woman to accept a major party nomination in just a month after President Biden bowed out of the race. Asma, this might have been one of the most important moments of her political life. What did you make of the speech? Look, I've heard a lot of Kamala Harris speeches these last few years.

I heard her when she ran for president in 2020. I have heard a number of her speeches as vice president and in her very nascent presidential campaign. I would argue that this is among the strongest speeches I have ever heard, perhaps even the strongest speech I've ever heard. I think both the delivery in terms of also sort of meeting expectations that Democrats had for her tonight. I think she had two main goals. One was to introduce herself or reintroduce herself to the public. And the other was to provide a clear vision of how she would lead. You know, there was a sense because there had not been a traditional primary that some folks might have seen this as a bit of a coronation. And I think it was clear tonight that, you know, she articulated almost like a state

of the union, some policy prescriptions, our vision for the country. At the same time, though, she talked about her life, talked quite a bit about her mother and certain maxims that her mother had for life and sprinkled them throughout her speech. Mara, what about you? I thought she rose to the occasion. She did as well as Democrats could have hoped. They were ecstatic at her speech. Now we get to find out if it's good enough.

I thought the thing she did that was really important was that she wove her story and her mother's story into the American story. Now, good candidates do that, especially children of immigrants like Barack Obama. But she did that very successfully. She talked about what she wanted to do. She's going to bring the cost of everything down. She's going to protect Social Security. She took the argument to Trump.

That was a big question going into this speech. How much would it be about Trump and how much would it be about her? I thought she got the balance right. And when she talked about Trump trying to throw out your vote or Trump, you know, encouraging an armed mob to go up to the Capitol, I think what the message she was sending was not specifics about Trump. People know that. But she was sending the message, I will go after you to Trump. And I'm strong enough and tough enough to do that. And then I just thought that the part at the end about being the commander-in-chief, helping Americans not in this hall envision her as a commander-in-chief, which is a huge, huge hurdle for a female candidate to get over, especially one that's African-American,

Asian-American, and five foot four, I would add, because we know from history that size does matter in elections. She talked about she was going to have the strongest, most lethal fighting force. I thought lethal was a really important word, especially coming from a female candidate who at the same time is promising to help the caregiving economy, but also she's going to take it to our enemies. So I think she did what she had to do. And now we're going to find out if it was good

enough to change the dynamic of the race and really open a clear lead for her. A big clear lead. Franco, takey takes? Yeah, I mean, I'd echo a lot of what Osma and Mara are saying, particularly the stuff about Trump. I mean, I'm covering Trump in the campaign. So I was listening very closely to see how she talked about Trump. Would she take him on directly? Would it be indirectly? For a while, early in the beginning of the speech, she spoke about integrity. And I was like, I wondered whether she was going to go harder against Trump.

And boy, did she. She really attacked Trump straight on, calling him an unserious man, talked about the potential consequences if he were to return. She told the audience or warned the audience, told them to imagine what it would be like for Trump to return to office without guardrails. These are concerns that a lot of Democrats have. really went after it. And you could really see that she really embraced the prosecutor role that Democrats and her allies are trying to, you know, kind of, as Osmo was saying, reintroduce her, but reintroduce her as that prosecutor who can take on people like Donald Trump. I want to talk about some of the policy more. But first, I want to talk about vibes tonight, because a couple of things really stood out to me. One, that the United Center was at capacity hours before she spoke.

It's about a 21,000 capacity arena. Tremendous enthusiasm here. The aesthetics, notably in the crowd, people were wearing white all throughout the arena, which was a nod to the suffragist movement. But also, Asma, you and I talk about fashion choices a lot in politics. I do think how she presented herself to the room was notable. She was wearing a dark pantsuit. It was either black or navy blue. It was hard to tell from the booth, but she was wearing a dark blouse underneath it. It was completely absent of color. And especially when you think about,

regardless of what happens in this race, that is an image for the history books. And the first thing I noticed was she herself chose not to wear white because so many people in the crowd, to your point, were, as this nod to history. I'm sure many listeners remember Hillary Clinton did wear white when she accepted the nomination in 2016. Part of her goal tonight was to reinforce people's perceptions that she could do this job. She's a serious person. She's a serious person. She's a serious candidate.

And that's why you heard her, to Mara's point, talk a lot about foreign policy, what she would do in terms of being a commander-in-chief. I also think, you know, fundamentally, Kamala Harris is not somebody who traditionally talks a lot about her own personal identity, whether that's gender or race. I do think she is extremely aware, right, of the historical moment of this. And if you listen to her speech, there were ways, I will say this, I mean, I am a brown woman, also myself, South Asian woman, that there were very

subtle ways in which I think her story was extremely relatable to folks who have immigrant backgrounds. And in particular, how she ended her story by incorporating this vision of an America, a patriotism that is much broader than, frankly, the patriotism that some folks on the Republican side of the aisle present. So there were these subtle nods. I mean, she said, let us write the next great chapter and the most extraordinary story ever told.

You know, on a couple of policy fronts, I thought that she made a very clear point to push an abortion message and had maybe one of the more memorable lines of the night. As a part of his agenda, he and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban medication abortion, and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress. And get this, get this, he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and and abortions. Simply put, they are out of their minds. On the substance of it, I would admit that I was a bit surprised of how much her remarks she focused on Israel and Gaza. On the one hand, committing the U.S. alliance to Israel. And let me be clear, and let me be clear. I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself, and I will always ensure

Israel has the ability to defend itself, because the people of Israel must never again face faced the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused on October 7, including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival. And also at the same time, speaking to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. What has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost. Desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety over and over again. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking. President Biden and I are working to end this war

such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination. Asma, was it a surprise to you as well? I don't think it was a surprise. And the reason I say that is that I think that this convention hall, this entire convention, has felt remarkably united, Democrats, except, I would argue, the one issue in which there has not been extreme ultimate unity is on the issue of the war in Gaza.

We saw elements of that throughout this week. And, you know, one thing that you heard from the vice president where she did receive sustained applause from the crowd was not just about the humanitarian crisis, but she reaffirmed the idea that the Palestinian people should have a right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination. But to me, these comments are also significant because it did drive home that there is no daylight between the position of Joe Biden on this relationship and the position of Kamala Harris. But she is a different messenger, and she may prioritize or emphasize certain things, even in terms of her delivery. And I will say I've heard Joe Biden talk about the situation in the Middle East quite a bit in recent weeks.

Her delivery and her tone was different than what we've heard from the president. I do think it was pretty strong, though, in how she defended Israel. I would say I was a bit surprised by how forceful she was in her defense in Israel and how much time she spent defending Israel and saying that she would have, that the U.S. would stand behind Israel. And I agree, the applause line was very supportive. I also saw it as kind of a defensive move against former President Trump, because that is an area that former President Donald Trump and the Republicans have been attacking her. That is a potentially a vulnerable

area. And I think she really did embrace it in that sense, and the border would be another example. Yeah, I think that it felt like so much of tonight, both her remarks and the build-up to it, was this question of the commander-in-chief test, right? Like she wanted to present as a commander-in-chief, but the lead-in of speakers to her were military veterans, people who were well-respected in the national security establishment, people like former CIA director Leon Panetta,

who had a line about, our allies will cheer and our enemies will fear when she is commander in chief. And foreign policy in that arena is an area where she's frankly not that well defined. You know, one thing I was a little surprised at is where were the retired generals? I was surprised that as a sitting vice president couldn't have gotten someone other than Leon Panetta, who has served in many roles in Democratic administrations, but there was no retired general. We should point out that Donald Trump didn't have any retired military vouching for him either. As a matter of fact, a lot of his former generals and defense officials have openly opposed him. But Hillary Clinton made sure that she had retired military leaders vouching for her, speaking at her convention. It's something that

when you were trying to be the first female commander-in-chief, it's important to have military validators. It was not just Leon Panetta. It was Ruben Gallego. And I thought, you know, this was definitely a clear point to kind of show that Kamala Harris is qualified to be a leader, to take that call late at night or in the very early hours, especially when Gallego invited all those former members of the military on the stage, all of them cheering, standing behind as if behind Kamala Harris in support of her. I thought it was really a sign of how they were saying they were standing behind her and that she was qualified for this position.

All right, let's take a quick break and more when we get back. And we're back. And all this week in Chicago, Donald Trump and his campaign have been offering counterprogramming and messaging. Staff has been having regular press briefings in Chicago. Franco, you've been attending these briefings all week. How has the Trump campaign responded to the convention in Chicago? Yeah, I mean, they've really been trying to steal any bit of attention from the energy that has been in this building and, you know, in the city.

As you noted, they've had press conferences every single day, bringing out surrogates to kind of carry Trump's message. And Trump himself, as well as his running mate, J.D. Vance, have been crisscrossing the country, visiting battleground states to talk about certain issues that they believe are important to voters and that they think will resonate with general election voters. Trump was actually on the border criticizing Harris about high migration and blaming her for the migration numbers that we've seen over the last several years. And actually, during Harris's speech, he was actually live blogging, live micro-blogging,

attacking her from everything on the speed of how she said thank you to all the criticisms in her report. It was quite amazing. He later went on, did a couple of interviews with some friendly media, and they're going to also kick off some campaigning. I can tell you, they're very excited that this is over. They were so ready to move on. They feel the honeymoon is going to end after this and that the real race will begin. I think honeymoon is a good word for it because since Kamala Harris has entered this race, she hasn't had a bad day yet leading up to the convention. I think from the campaign's vantage point, this was a tremendous success. And I think

the thing that we're all looking to in the next couple of weeks is how do the polls shake out? Does she get a bounce? And has this race ultimately been transformed? Right. I mean, that's the big question. She could get a bounce, but then the question is, does the bounce stay? Because some bounces fade. We're going to find out. We're going to know that. The next big set piece is the debate, of course, on September 10th. And she has yet to submit herself to a tough interview or a voter town hall. And debates, especially with Donald Trump, are completely different animals than standing in front of an adoring crowd, and that'll be another challenge for her. Yeah, I can tell you when I talk to Republicans,

they are very curious about whether she will get an additional bounce. They tell me that they think she may have already gotten a convention bounce before the convention and that maybe it's leveled off. And they also think, or maybe these are hopeful thoughts, that that bounce was mostly Democrats coming back to the fold and not necessarily reaching independent and moderate voters. So we'll see. When campaigns tell you what they think will happen to the other guy's poll numbers,

that we heard for months from the Biden people. Oh, as soon as voters realize that Trump is really going to be the nominee and they understand the choice, his numbers will fall. It never happened. When one campaign tells you what they think is going to happen to the other guy's numbers, that's just spin and wishful thinking. But I will say that's been one noticeable difference to me since Harris came in and she's taken on the top job is you don't hear any of this prognostication, at least I don't hear it publicly or privately from them about the Trump campaign.

The guy who's losing is the one who tells you that. The Harris people are out there filling two arenas, frankly, on Tuesday night and still saying we're the underdogs and we got to go out there and make sure we knock on doors and whatnot. But at the Republican convention, I'm saying there was this degree of optimism. And so even though I think Democrats feel a degree of optimism, certainly it feels that way here, I would say the past few days. The thing I keep hearing from people, you know, I was talking to delegates even earlier. They feel like, OK, there's some Trump fatigue. This time might be different, they say, than 2016.

But they still have this, like, unease and nervousness. They tell me it's like a 50-50 race. But they should have. But it strikes me as just fundamentally different than the level of confidence we saw last month in Milwaukee. Well, yeah, but that was an unusual moment where Biden was collapsing. But I think the Democrats' attitude is based in reality. Democrats need a bigger lead nationally to win in the battleground. And they know she hasn't established a clear lead yet. And as Bill Clinton said the other night, he said, we've seen several

elections slip through our fingers. So they're right not to get too confident. Well, I mean, there is a lot of momentum here. There is like a very positive vibe, but I mean, there's a lot of politicking to be played. I mean, we have a debate coming up in a few weeks and, you know, the scrutiny is going to change. This has basically been a, you know, four day marketing infomercial all from one side. Well, yeah, of course. But the next few days, the next few weeks are not going to be that. I think the scrutiny is going to increase. And the conversation is going to be very, very different leading up to the debate. And then the debate will happen.

My God, if the last six to eight weeks have not taught us that this race can be completely upended time and time again. One day to the next. I am not making a single prediction coming out of Chicago, my friends. And I always like to say it's very hard to make predictions, especially about the future. And that is a wrap for us here in Chicago. But thank you to the entire NPR tech and support teams and all of our colleagues here in Chicago and everywhere else. We could not have made this week such a success without you. And, of course, we'll be back in your feeds Friday afternoon.

I'm Susan Davis. I cover politics. I'm Franco Ordonez. I cover the campaign. I'm Asma Khalid. I cover the White House. And I'm Mara Liason, senior national political correspondent. And thanks for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.