The NPR Politics Podcast - Kamalanomenon: Vice President Harris Racks Up Endorsements

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

Vice President Harris faces no major opposition for the Democratic nomination. The fundraising platform ActBlue has reported more than $50 million in donations since she was endorsed by President Biden last night. Now, attention is turning to who she may select for her running mate.This episode: voting correspondent Ashley Lopez, senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, and political correspondent Susan Davis.The podcast is produced by Casey Morell and Kelli Wessinger. Our intern is Bria Suggs. 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

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels, with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at AutographCollection.com. Hello, this is Ian from Somerville, Massachusetts. I just finished unpacking from an 8-day, ten-state road trip with my family. Now I need to catch up on the NPR Politics podcast to see if anything interesting happened in American politics this week. The show was recorded at...

1.37 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, July 22, 2024. Things may have changed by the time you hear this. Here's the show. Oh my gosh, so much to catch up on. Didn't miss a thing. How was he on a road trip and not listening to podcasts? That's the only way I survive a road trip. I don't know. I am curious what he listened to to escape the news on that 10-day road trip because I feel like I could use that listening playlist right now. That might have been the least dressed person in America. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover politics. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. And I'm Susan Davis. I cover politics. And today on the show, Vice President Harris

looks like she's on a glide path to replace President Biden on the top of the Democratic ticket. Since our show yesterday, she's locked up a bunch of endorsements from lawmakers and likely opponents. And at least so far, she's got no major declared opponents ahead of the party convention next month. Tam, let's start with you. I mean, like, how did we get to this situation where, you know, Vice President Harris is seemingly unstoppable on her way to the top of that ticket? Well, according to someone familiar with her activities yesterday, she spent 10 hours working the phones yesterday after speaking to President Biden about his decision. She was apparently

wearing a Howard University hoodie, sweatpants and sneakers, didn't have time to change and ordered pizza at the end. But all of those calls are certainly part of what was a big project to get Democrats united. Now, she says that she is going to earn this nomination. She is going to work for this nomination. But the pieces have been falling into place. And I think Sue can speak to this because I feel like every five minutes we're getting a new endorsement coming from prominent Democrats, especially in Congress. Once President Biden made it clear that he was going to endorse Kamala Harris minutes after announcing he wouldn't run, everyone had a decision to make. And if you were going to make it, you had to make it probably within 24 hours, right? Like you don't have a month to decide whether you're going to challenge her or not. And I think it became very telling very quickly that potential rivals to her, people

like Gavin Newsom of California, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, all were making very clear very quickly that they weren't going to challenge her. And once that was made clear, even for Democrats saying they would like an open process, I think that also opened the floodgates for lawmakers on Capitol Hill to very quickly start endorsing her when it started to become clear there wouldn't be any real opposition. Now, there may still be, right? There's a process. There's certainly voices within the Democratic Party. Actually, I couldn't even say a voice within the Democratic Party because it's Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who is now an independent,

but a former Democrat was on television just this morning saying that he thought that an open process was better for the party. But he also said he wouldn't do it. And I'm not even sure he would be qualified for the Democratic nomination as an independent. So she is in a very strong position going into Chicago. It seems like any challenge would probably only be nominal. And I would say this is probably the only circumstance in which Kamala Harris would have gone completely unchallenged for the nomination. If Joe Biden, for instance, had decided not to run at all, and it had been more of an open primary, I don't think she would have gotten it that easily. So I think there's a panic button that

has been hit within the Democratic Party. And there isn't really much room for contention right now. And everyone seems to have got the memo that you're with Kamala Harris or you're not. Yeah. I mean, I know it's not over till it's over, but I mean, I'm pretty surprised because I mean, it was just, I don't know, less than a week ago that I saw an Instagram live with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying, you know, the forces that are forcing Biden out are forces that are not interested in having Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket. They're more interested in this sort of messy contested convention. I mean, it seemed like it didn't even take 24 hours for that messy contested convention to become less

and less likely. I mean, I wonder how you see the probability of even that being a possibility moving forward at this point. Well, I would also note that same congresswoman who I believe it was Thursday night that she made those extended remarks has already endorsed Kamala Harris. And I don't think there's any doubt that the progressive forces within the party are certainly going to line up behind her. And look like the fear that people like Ocasio-Cortez and people like Bernie Sanders, who had been some of Biden's biggest defenders, was their argument was swapping out the nominee this late in the race risks injecting way more uncertainty into this election. And to voters who might feel like the 14 million plus

votes that were cast in the Democratic primary are being tossed out the side. And it looks like you're kind of playing games with the electorate. And look, Democrats are certainly rallying right now, but there is real electoral risk to what this party is attempting to do. And it's going to be a high wire act, not just from now until the convention, but from the convention to election day. I think Democrats are aided by the fact that although there certainly were some people who were super enthusiastic about President Biden and President Biden only, most Democratic voters, I mean, if you looked at polls, the vast majority of Democratic voters wanted someone else. They wanted someone else a year

ago. They wanted someone else two years ago. Now, they aren't getting a say exactly because now it's these 4700 some Democratic convention delegates who will decide. But those delegates are remember in Nevada, you know, when I talked to Biden supporters at the polls, a lot of them were sort of grimacing as they were saying, yeah, I'm supporting Joe Biden. So I, you know, it's a big question is how many of those 14 million votes were people who were like, actually, you know, I'm doing this because it's my only option. Yeah. I mean, there was certainly an element of I will take him over Trump. Now Biden stepping aside, there is an excitement that you are seeing among voters and among sort of rank and file Democrats that you didn't see for Biden. And that excitement is manifesting in absolutely big blockbuster fundraising numbers that Harris has raised just in the past 24 hours, like remarkable numbers. Yeah. Well, speaking of Kamala Harris, she spoke this morning briefly

at the White House. Joe Biden's legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history. In one term, he has already, yes, you may clap. In one term, he has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who have served two terms in office. What a difference a day makes. So a very different conversation being had about President Biden at this point. I mean, at this point, I think Democrats are going to turn Joe Biden and try to turn Joe Biden into a hero and sort of a folk hero. I'd still imagine he will have a speaking role at the convention, the sort of praise that's coming from within the party. But look, I do think that the Democrats have opened the door here to a potentially potent line of attack from their political opponents, in that it can be made to look like they've been

playing some gamesmanship with this election. And especially as the party that has been so forcefully running as the party that cares about democracy, that upholds democracy, that will fight for democracy. And then when their candidate looks like they're going to lose, they swap in someone else. Now, obviously, people like us know there's way more complication and nuance to everything that just happened in this race. But I don't think it's that hard to see how that could be turned into a campaign issue. And for, again, not for Democrats, like I get it, diehard Democrats, this can look like you're trying to mess with an election a little bit. And to think that there isn't potentially a downside to that politically, I think is a bit foolish on Democrats' part. Yeah, I mean, I think Democrats know that there's potential downside,

but they just thought it was worth the risk. Sure. I think it's clear to them that what is very clear of Biden getting out is that he clearly reached the conclusion that he couldn't win this election either. But again, that speaks to that other reality is that when you no longer can win, just find a candidate that maybe can. Yeah. And, you know, it's because Democrats see Trump as an existential threat, that they are willing to do things that feel risky, that they wouldn't ordinarily do, that, you know, the rules for nominating a candidate on the Democratic side changed after the 1968 convention

and it was democratized in sort of the small d way of having primaries and caucuses that actually matter and taking the voice of party bosses really out of it. And yet, you know, in 2020, it looked like Biden had no chance and it was a crowded field and Bernie Sanders was leading the way. And then all of a sudden, all everyone else dropped out and it was Biden versus Sanders and Biden got the nomination because Democrats felt he was the most electable. And that was a pretty remarkable set of events. And now Democrats didn't see their guy as electable.

Yeah. All right. Well, let's take a quick break. More in a moment. And we're back. Let's talk about the folks who were thought to be potential competitors for the nomination. And so far, by and large, have endorsed Vice President Harris. Sue, who are you watching as, you know, this list of potential competitors for her? And what have they said so far? I mean, the list is pretty well known by now because there's so much young ambition in the Democratic Party and there's already been so much conversation about 2028 because had Joe Biden run, he would have been term limited at the end of that run anyway. Obviously, the names you hear the most are people like Gavin Newsom of

California, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Wes Moore of Maryland, Roy Cooper of North Carolina, all Democratic governors. Obviously, I think all of them, if not all of them, have already endorsed Kamala Harris and said that they will run and support her. I think the interesting transition at this point, actually, quite frankly, is this very same list of people also seems like they could be the short list for a potential running mate. I think that especially because Kamala Harris is injecting a new level of sort of race and gender politics into this campaign that hadn't been there before when it was a race between two older white men. She's obviously a multiracial woman. She's a history-making candidate. But I also think within the Democratic Party, there's some nervousness about that and what that means.

The sense that I've gotten from talking to Democrats is they think that a safe pick is the right pick. And when I say safe pick, I think like a more moderate white male. So I think that that is giving more conversation around people like Shapiro. I'd also throw into that mix Mark Kelly, who's a Democratic senator from Arizona. A lot of this is also people that could put swing states either back into play or help win them. And frankly, before Biden got out, a lot of Democrats thought Arizona was being moved off the map, that Trump was doing so well there that Biden might not be able to compete. If you pick someone like a Mark Kelly, does it take a state like that and put it back into contention?

And the good thing about this time around, we'll probably know who this is within a matter of weeks because, again, the convention is in four weeks and almost always the nominee is named right in the days before the convention. So they don't have a lot of time to vet someone. So they need to pick someone that they feel pretty trustworthy and reliable who can handle that level of scrutiny. And then it goes to that X factor of like, who does Kamala Harris trust and want to be by her side? And that's the thing that we just don't really have a good grasp of yet. And I think there's also the issue of if you pick someone like a Shapiro, then you are losing a Democratic governor in a swing state if they win. So there are also calculations that have to be made about control of state houses and control of Congress, all of that that factors in. And also chemistry. It's an important question. The chemistry hasn't always been there with presidential and vice presidential picks, but that is certainly something to look for as well. Yeah, I can't believe we're getting a bonus Veep Stakes so close to convention. So beyond endorsements, you know, obviously another sign of a viable candidacy is money.

You know, how is fundraising going? It seems like Vice President Harris has access potentially to the existing campaign war chest, but also like the infrastructure, right? Like the staff. Tam, campaign, held a staff meeting last night that staff tell me was really good and positive because all of these staff were really nervous about what was happening. She told them that they are all keeping their jobs. Now, who knows how this ultimately shakes out a few weeks from now. But for now, they are all keeping their jobs. And she said, you have a job to do. That is to go full steam ahead to help Kamala Harris win the nomination and defeat Donald Trump. And so, like, if you go to Joe Biden dot com right now, you're going to get redirected to a fundraising page for Kamala Harris. They they have a new logo. They they have essentially flipped a switch, changed the Twitter accounts.

They've done everything. It is now not the Biden-Harris campaign. It is the Harris campaign. And then, as I mentioned before, according to ActBlue, which is the Democratic fundraising platform that's out there, Harris, through grassroots donations, raised something like $50 million in just the first hours after President Biden endorsed her. That is an indication that people, you know, regular rank and file, normal grassroots, if you will, voters were looking for something to be excited about. And they have found something, at least for now, they have found a place to channel their angst and it is sending money to Vice President Harris's campaign. One outstanding question is, yes, they've flipped

the switch. They've filed a form with the Federal Elections Commission to say it's now the Harris campaign. But can Biden really just transfer all of that? This hasn't actually been tested. Of course, Harris's name was on the ticket. Harris got all those votes. Harris was part of that fundraising. The FEC, which is the federal commission that is supposed to regulate campaign spending and campaign finance laws, is deadlocked at the moment, which means it could be a long time, if ever, before they weigh in. One question that I think we all have now is, will that presidential debate scheduled for after the Democratic Convention in mid-September, is that going to happen now? And there's reason to believe it might not. Donald Trump on his social media platform just today was sort of suggesting that maybe it shouldn't be on

ABC News anymore, which was supposed to be the outlet that was going to host the debate, suggesting it should be on Fox instead to be more quote unquote fair. So I think a lot of Americans would like to see Donald Trump and Kamala Harris meet on a debate stage. It seems kind of wild to think that they might not. But again, I don't think debates are guarantees anymore. All right. Let's leave it there for today. I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover politics. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. And I'm Susan Davis. I also cover politics. And news is breaking fast in all this. And we're on it. Please hit the follow button on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen so you don't miss a beat.

And thank you, as always, for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast. Is that a phone? It kind of scared me. I'm like, who is a landline?