The NPR Politics Podcast - Weekly Roundup: January 21st

Episode Date: January 21, 2022

Kamala Harris made history when she became the first woman and the first woman of color to serve as vice president. But in an often thankless job, and tasked with a portfolio of politically thorny issues, her first year in office was a mixed bag. Also, a pollster who has spent more than two decades speaking with young people explains what motivates Gen-Z voters — and why politicians will ignore them at their peril.This episode: White House correspondent Scott Detrow, White House correspondent Asma Khalid, and political correspondent Juana Summers. Connect:Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This is Glenn in Claremont, California, where I'm sitting on the summit of Potato Mountain, where you can find a pile of actual potatoes. This was recorded at... It is 1.26 Eastern on Friday, January 21st. Things may have changed by the time you hear this, but I'll still be wondering, which came first, the name of the mountain or the pile of potatoes? Here's the show. I would guess... Well, Asma, I'm not allowed to talk about potatoes with you on podcasts ever again. Oh, no.

I remember that. Wait, is that a thing that happens often? Oh, no. It happened with tragic unintended results once. And we can talk about it later. And listeners know what we're some listeners know. I'll call you after. Hey there.

It's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Scott Detrow. I cover the White House. I'm Asma Khalid. I'll call you after. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Scott Detrow. I cover the White House. I'm Asma Khalid. I also cover the White House. And I'm Juana Summers, and I cover politics. Ooh, and this, and today, one year ago, we were all catching up on sleep a little

because the day before had been the inauguration of Joe Biden, which meant that we were talking on the radio nonstop for like 24 hours, but it's been a year. We have taken stock of a lot of different aspects of the Biden White House over the past few weeks. And today we're going to look at one big one, and that is Kamala Harris's vice presidency. Harris, of course, made history the instant she was sworn in that day as the first woman, the first woman of color to serve as vice president. She's also had a rocky year in many ways. Asma,

you worked on a story assessing all of this. And Juana, you covered Harris for a long time. So I'm excited to talk about this with the two of you. Asma, let's start with your reporting. What were some of the common themes among the interviews that you did about how things are going for Harris? Yeah, I mean, look, she's had a really wide ranging disparate portfolio. And some of her allies have been frustrated by this fact. I mean, she has covered everything from broadband to root causes of migration to voting rights. And some folks say, look, these are really intractable problems. And for the VP to deal with all these just doesn't really necessarily in their view, set her up for success. That being said, you know, one of the things I've heard from a lot of folks who have met with her over the course of the year is that they find the vice

president to be someone who is a really good listener. I heard this from, you know, even people who had not necessarily loved the policy results that they've seen from her. They described these meetings that went on longer than they were planned. They described, you know, situations where her staff would often follow up. They felt like she was listening and really took to heart what they were trying to present her with. Yeah, and that's something that's really been a hallmark of her career, right? I mean, Scott, if you remember when you and I both covered Kamala Harris's presidential campaign before we became colleagues, she used to have these kind of roundtables and

listening sessions a bunch. I think it's a way that she kind of internalizes information that even dates back to her time in California and in her Senate office. Yeah, I think that combined with the way that she presented herself on high profile, you know, hearings in the Senate, which was one of like the big things that made her mark on the national scene. I think the two of those facts kind of combined to make it a little surprising to me at times, the fact that one of the common themes of this first year for Harris was the fact that, you know, bluntly, when she would have high profile interviews, high profile public appearances, Asma, often they have not gone well for

Harris and the Biden administration this year. You know, there have been a couple of occasions, and I think back to when she was in Central America, Mexico, on this trip to look deal with root causes of migration, where she said this comment, famously saying, don't come to migrants who are considering coming to the United States. And it kind of took over the rest of the things that she had done on that trip. And look, I will say supporters of hers, allies of hers have been frustrated with some of this.

They feel like she has actually invested in dealing with some of these problems. She's brought in, say, you know, investments from the business community to pour into Central American countries. But they feel like that hasn't really gotten, you know, the attention that they say that it deserves. I think one of the biggest things I heard from her supporters, though, was this sense that it wasn't just about policies. They felt like it was about her leadership style itself. And that the thing she had done was that she had brought people into the White House, invited people into the White House, who'd often been invisible to previous administrations. You know, these are people, they say, minority groups, women, she would focus on issues of maternal health, specifically as it

related to black women. And these are, they would say, are just like topics that the White House doesn't discuss much at all. And I heard this from one person in particular, Ai-jen Poo. She's the co-founder of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. She told me she's met with the VP on four different occasions, and that was the thing that stuck out to her the most. I think the focus on groups that have been left out or marginalized and people who have been left out and marginalized is one of the most important outcomes because without those communities and those voices, your solutions are incomplete and less effective, frankly. And so for me, the fact that she has been listening and convening voices that traditionally have not been at the center of American politics and these conversations is

a really critical outcome in and of itself. Were there any areas, Asma, where these listening sessions, these conversations, these invitations led to changes in administration policy? You know, Scott, I think that that's a really fair question to ask. You know, I would say on voting rights, I heard from some people who had been in meetings with her, and they say that they had encouraged her to think about ways in which the administration could expand voting rights access beyond legislation. And so they really encouraged, you know, the vice president to look at what they say is a whole of government approach. You know, what, for example, could the

administration do to really encourage, say, information when people leave prisons, for example, to regain the right to vote or to focus on what the Department of Ed could do to increase voter registration in schools. And so they feel like the administration was receptive to that. I mean, look, to be fair, these are maybe things at the margins. There are definitely people who feel like she has listened and that the administration has listened, but they have been frustrated with, say, the lack of concrete changes in policy. And this was something I heard from Dylan Corbett.

He's with the Hope Border Institute in El Paso, Texas. He met with the vice president last summer. And, you know, he said, yes, she has done stuff to deal with the root causes of migration at the border. She's visited the region, met with leaders. But he has been frustrated that he hasn't seen more changes, specifically as it relates to what's happening at the U.S.-Mexico border. It's not enough. We have to overturn the notion that addressing root causes gives us a pass on human rights at the border. And I think that's

probably one of the most troubling things that we're going to take away from the first year of this administration. So, Juana, one other thing that I think, like, again, it's been such a common theme in the podcast, but in this conversation, in this context, I think we need to flag it one more time. Like, when you look at the specific tasks that Biden gave Harris, they're all so complicated and so hard to solve. Like, you know, the issue of voting rights, as we saw this week, there is currently an impossible path to get it through the Senate. Harris went and presided over the vote, but the vote failed because two Democrats said they're not going to vote to change filibuster rules this week. Yeah, that's right. And something that we should point out in the conversation around the vice

president and voting rights that her team, I know, has said to all three of us any number of times is that that is a task and a mission that she asked for herself. It's a topic that she wanted to be personally and intimately involved on leading on behalf of the administration. But I think that that is something that I have heard from supporters. I'm sure Asma has heard as well that really frustrates them. It's like because she has these intractable issues as such a part of her portfolio, the things that are good about her, the reasons why people are drawn to her and see her as effective leader are often not the things that make headlines. Right. why people are drawn to her and see her as effective leader are often not the things that make headlines, right? You know, instead, perhaps the biggest thing in her portfolio right now, which is voting rights, is something in which the administration has not been able to do what they

promised to communities of color. But the other thing, like, as I think about this, as I've talked to her supporters, is many of them make the point to me that she is being judged by the standards of a job that is a tough job no matter what. You're the number two person. You're not the president. You're the vice president. She's being judged in a situation where there's never been a person like her who looks like her and has her background in this job before. So a lot of them raise the question to me all the time of whether she's been judged fairly here. And Asma, I wonder what you've heard about that. No, I mean, I think that's something I definitely heard. You know, I spoke to Melanie Campbell, who's been in meetings with her, is,

you know, an ally of the VPs who no doubt wanted to see more legislative action on voting rights. But she, you know, flat out said to me that she's been in this business of politics for a while. She is frustrated by the way she hears people talk about the VP's portfolio as if it's distinct from what Joe Biden has. Why is the first time a woman is elected, all of a sudden the burden is on her? It's like she's out of the administration. She was like, you know, their fates rise and sink together. And why is it that Kamala Harris's portfolio is singled out as being something distinct? I think partially because her team often talks about it

as her portfolio. I mean, partially. I mean, I think the broader point is a good point, though. And I think that gets to the last question on this. I mean, when you look back to the point in time where Biden picked Harris, there were a lot of reasons to pick her, but one of them had to do with the Democratic Party and the coalition he was trying to build. I mean, he, a 78-year-old white guy, she is a woman of color who's much younger than him. And he said at the time leading up to that pick, around the time of that pick, that he wanted to be a bridge to the next generation. And many of us viewed this as a symbolic pick saying, this is the leader of the Democratic Party going forward at a certain

point in time. How do we think that decision looks a year later at this moment where both of them are facing, you know, a lot of political odds in this very particular moment, the beginning of 2022? You know, she represents so many things. As you point out, she's the first woman to hold the job. She is a younger woman, but she's also a graduate of a historically black college, Howard University in Washington, as Ayesha Roscoe would want me to point out. So she embodies all of these things. And I think in many ways, she is that bridge. She is a part of a younger generation of black lawmakers who have a different philosophical approach to politics than the president has and the approach that he grew up in during all of his

years in the Senate. But I think that the big question at the end of the day is to what impact, right? Representation is one thing. But when I talk to a lot of people, they raise the question of, is a seat at the table impactful if you don't have a lot to show for it? And I think for some of her supporters, as Asma has pointed out in her reporting, there is a frustration that perhaps there is not as much to show for it or to show from this first year of the administration as they'd hoped. All right, let's take a quick break.

And when we come back, we're going to talk about some new reporting that Juana has done looking at Gen Z voters and what they're thinking and feeling right now. We are back by 2024, which is the next presidential election. Millennials and Gen Z are expected to cast as many ballots as baby boomers. So Juana, you just did a really interesting story. You talked to a pollster who has spent more than two decades working to understand young people in America. He has a new book out about Gen Z's political coming of age. And the interview and the story that you wrote around that had a lot of really interesting stuff. What is some of the main top lines and surprising things that jumped out to you about this really close look at Gen Z

motivations? Yeah, Scott. So I have spent a lot of years talking with John Della Volpe, who heads up polling at Harvard's Institute of Politics. And this month, he's out with a new book called Fight, which is all about how Gen Z votes, how they live their lives, the things they believe in. And the big point that John made to me in our interview over and over again, is the fact that this is a unique generation. it is a generation whose lives, perhaps from the moment they were born, have been in many ways defined by crisis. Any generation in 75 years since the greatest generation has been confronted with more chaos more quickly in their young lives than Gen Z or Zoomers. So when De La Volpe is referencing the greatest generation, he's talking about the people born at the turn of the 20th century who lived through the great 1918 flu pandemic, the Great Depression. And they were primarily the people who fought and lived through World War II as well. And just to be clear who we're talking about here, I actually don't know how old either of you are, but I think it is safe to say that the three of us are not Gen Z.

Yes. Don't think so. No. That at least I know. So we're talking about folks who were born in the mid-1990s on, in the years surrounding 9-11, when the Great Recession left a lot of families financially strapped. These are kids who grew up participating in lockdown drills and have been confronting climate change, not to mention, I don't know, growing up in the isolation of this pandemic. And those are all things that have made an impact on the way in which they walk through

the world. And that's what Della Volpe digs into in this book and not to mention coming of age and and being a young adult at a point where more often than not the government has not responded to any of those major crises with any sort of like coherent or helpful policy in so many cases so like i feel like i feel like when you take all those things over and over again, you can see why there's a lot of skepticism and cynicism about this political process for Gen Z voters. I mean, do they have one like skepticism about participating in the process because they don't feel like it's worked or has like the anxiety and angst led to greater levels of participation? Or maybe it's too soon to say. I think in some ways, it's too soon to say. But the one thing that I learned both from reading the book and conversation with David Hogg, the Parkland activist who wrote the foreword to the book, is that it's made these young people

feel like they have to take ownership of the situation for themselves. Because for years and years and years, they have not necessarily been able to count on older leaders to address the issues that they care most about. I think that the anxiety that comes over that from gun violence, from climate change, to all these other things is something that, you know, a lot of generations right now just can't understand at the scale of the existential threat in many ways that young people today feel. What I will say, though, is that as we've seen in times before when generations face challenges, they come to meet them oftentimes. You know, movements find their leaders. I think we saw that in 2020.

And, you know, I wanted to talk about in the context of the anxiety that David Hogg talked about, what I thought was one of the most striking moments in the book, and it gets into it gets a little bit away from politics, but kind of brings us back there. And it's about mental health. John Del Volpe said over and over again, that he believes that there is a alarming mental health crisis in among Gen Zers, that he's very troubled by he he's Gen X, as he said, but he's also the parent of a Gen Zer. And he's been having all these focus groups and talking to all these young people. And he wrote about this really interesting moment from a focus group that he did in, I think, 2017 or 2018. And I asked him about that during our interview. You asked them what older generations do not understand about Generation

Z. And you write about the student named Grace. And I'm going to quote Grace here. An older generation would not understand waking up in a classroom and thinking about how easy it would be for someone to shoot it up. The same daily weight on an adult's shoulders over bills or taxes is what children feel about living or dying. What stuck out about that to you? What did that tell you? I used to hear just, you know, young people talk about kind of connection and opportunity in America if you were to work for it. And now what I heard was that it's don't have the luxury of even thinking about that.

It's young people were challenged with just the daily weight of living and dying. Grace wasn't the only one. Every single hand in that group went up and was nodding kind of their heads. And the thing that John said that stuck to me after he talked about what Grace had told him is the fact that he believes this mental health crisis is exacerbated by the state of the country's politics, that it is in fact making it worse for these young people i feel like i've known we've talked about this and i've known in theory that like you know school shootings have gotten so much worse active shooters such a constant thing but just hearing that that that moment of that conversation and hearing the two of you talk about that was just like really upsetting and clarifying to listen to in terms of in terms of the mindset here you know there's been so much

focus i would say in politics on millennials just because of our sheer size. And I'm saying our because I believe all of us are older millennials. Older. Older. Sometimes a focus on millennials that still assumes everyone is 25. But I just want to point out that that's no longer the case. We are a tad older than that.

You know, but I will say it's interesting because I'm not going to say that everything about our childhood was golden and rosy. But listening to some of this reporting, Juana, like it is, it's really sad. And I guess I think about this more now because I have a young child. But yes, you do think about like their safety and their level of security and just what they're growing up in in a world that is, I mean, look, I'm Muslim. And most of my childhood was before 9-11. And I can't imagine what it's like for children growing up who are Muslim in this country now with, like, the political turmoil and angst that we've had that to have, you know, a president, you know, former president who by all accounts said Islam hates us.

I mean, there's just sort of, I think, a level of vitriol in politics that I don't recall as a child, at least publicly being stated. And I don't know, it makes me think a lot about like the world in which I'm raising my kids and beyond even I think just like their political participation to, you know, Delevalpe's point, like their own mental health. That all being said, it's not all in my view negative, because when I look at this, this younger generation, I also am floored by just how open minded and accepting so many young people are of like, different races and cultures and different kinds of people. They're growing up in a world that just is, I mean, it's demographically so different than the world that I grew up in. And I think, you know, that gives me hope too. Yeah, I will say, you mentioned raising kids in this, I have two stepchildren, and they are both Gen Zers, one's a sophomore in high school,

and one's in seventh grade. And these are things we talk about that a lot. And I, especially because of what I do for a living over the course of the election cycle and talking about what politics can mean and what activism can look like. And what has been really interesting to me is kind of hearkening back to what David Hogg said about how when there are challenges that movements find their leaders, I hear them talk a lot about the leaders and their generation and what those people look like and what they can be. What I don't hear them talking about is necessarily politics with a capital P and the way that we cover it, whether it's campaigns or running for Congress or the White House or the presidency. It's that outside-in pressure. And I am just – I'm really curious to

see what it looks like when the Gen Zers that I talk to now, many of whom are in high school or just starting college, are raising families and running for office themselves, perhaps, or running businesses that speak to their values. I wonder what that world looks like. All right, we're going to take one more quick break. And when we come back, we will end the show with Can't Let It Go. And we are back and it is time for Can't Let It Go, the part of the show where we talk about the things we cannot stop thinking about politics or otherwise. Asma, why don't you go first? All right.

Well, mine is I want to end the show this week on a bit of an upbeat, optimistic note. Don't have much to share with this story, but I just saw it and was like, this is my feel-good news moment of the week. I'm sure you all had heard there was this really deadly fire in the Bronx recently. And, you know, earlier this week, Cardi B came out and said that she intends to pay for the funeral expenses for these Bronx fire victims. She, of course, for those of you who don't know, is a Bronx native. So anyhow, that just gave me hope and a humanity of people. I know we were talking about anxiety and angst in the country. And I will say that there are some moments of optimism where you're like, wow, people are good to one another. So kudos, Cardi B. Thank you, Cardi, as always.

Cardi B, who, of course, a good bud of Bernie Sanders, who would always occasionally pop up in his social media in entertaining ways I remember those Juana Juana what about you all right so I and uncharacteristically I've been getting to watch a little bit of tv which has been nice and I'm curious have either of you guys watched the HBO show Euphoria I have not yet. I have not, no. So first of all, don't watch it with your kids. Just don't. But I have really been loving it. It is an HBO show that just started its second season and actually had some really crazy viewership numbers for that second season that set some records. And it follows the dark and complicated lives of a group of teenagers trying to navigate all of

these really tough things like substance abuse and depression and love while also somehow going to high school. And I have really enjoyed it because it's beautifully shot. It has the most amazing soundtrack. Everybody on the show is just beautiful. I could talk about the eye makeup for hours. But what I love is that like the spectrum of the different ways to be a young person is just beautiful. One of the main stars is a transgender woman. The lead character Rue, who is struggling with drug addiction through the show is played by Zendaya. It's just a really interesting raw depiction of what it's like to be a teen. I know some people think it can be pretty gritty and pretty raw,

but I have actually really enjoyed watching it. Tip, I mean, nowadays all I do basically in the evenings when I have free time is watch TV for the last two years. So I will add that to my list. All right, all right. So I will go last. As you have both been texted about many times and can empathize to,

I am in one of those no school situations right now. So between trying to work and trying to do that, I have not consumed much pop culture. With one major exception that I'm going to talk about it because I am obsessed with it, even though I have seen it 10,000 times at this point. And that is Encanto. Have either of you watched it yet? I have not yet. But I feel like every friend of mine who has small children keeps talking about this. Have you seen it, Juana? I have also not seen it. But I will confess the children who live in my house are in the double digits. Okay. Well, I'm deep in the Encanto zone right now.

The music is great. The story is great. The music has been playing on a loop in my brain and on my phone and in my car and everywhere I go. I engaged in a Twitter exchange about, we don't talk about Bruno with Jen Psaki the other day, and that is the point of this. We've gotten to the point where we have discovered the soundtracks to Encanto in other languages on Spotify, and we blow through them we listen to we don't talk about Bruno in Russian in German in Spanish in Norwegian we are just not stopping it is non-stop uh we are now my son discovered TikToks for the first time I have not set up account but we are finding TikToks through other platforms and he is now recreating

and I'm like yes I'm recording a TikTok for you and posting it, recreating Encanto TikToks we have seen elsewhere in our kitchen. I admit, I actually have not heard this song, but I was reading somewhere that it's apparently the highest charting Disney song in decades. It is the number one song. We probably cannot play it for legal reasons, but can I sing it? Okay, now I'm going to Google. Oh, you sing it. Okay, please.

Yeah, go ahead. Oh. The chorus is, now I'm going to Google. Oh, you sing it. Okay, please. Yes, go ahead. The chorus is, we don't talk about Bruno. We don't talk about Bruno, no, no, no, no. We don't talk about Bruno. I have been trying to figure out who Bruno is from all of our work conversations, and no one will tell me. They just say we don't talk about him. Anyway, that's what I'm doing all day, any moment of the day.

And we'll continue to do that. I have come to peace that that is clearly going to be at the top of my Spotify rap. And I'm okay with that. We'll think back on these days fondly, Scott. We will. Should somebody tell me in my ear to please God stop singing We Don't Talk About Bruno into my microphone? Or I'll just make that as an executive decision.

All right. That is a wrap for today. Our executive producer is Muthani Mathuri. Our editors are Eric McDaniel and Krishna Def Kalamore. Our producers are Lexi Schapito and Elena Moore. Thank you to Brandon Carter. I'm Scott Detrow. I cover the White House.

I'm Asma Khalid. I also cover the White House. And I'm Juana Summers. I cover politics. Thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.