WSJ What’s News - How Biden’s Exit Shakes Up the Campaign

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

A.M. Edition for July 22. After President Biden bows out of the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris gathers support to be the Democrats’ nominee. WSJ editor Aaron Zitner breaks down the strengths and weaknesses of her candidacy, and how the Republican campaign is adjusting course. Plus, lawmakers prepare to grill Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle about the security failures during the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. And, flight cancellations and delays continue to plague travelers after Friday’s tech meltdown. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That's BetterHelp.com. Kamala Harris racks up endorsements after President Biden ends his re-election bid. The party is consolidating around her. She's got momentum. And one important thing is the Democrats had their best day of fundraising and small dollar donations after President Biden withdrew. Plus, the director of the Secret Service prepares for a grilling on Capitol Hill over the near assassination of Donald Trump. And flight cancellations continue in the wake of Friday's

tech meltdown. It's Monday, July 22nd. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. We began with the reaction to President Biden's decision yesterday to drop out of the race for president after failing to quell a Democratic rebellion against his candidacy. Since there is still a lot that we don't know following Biden's historic announcement, I'm joined by Wall Street Journal editor Aaron Zittner now to walk us through what is likely to come next. Aaron, am I right that the biggest question at this point is what the process to fill the nomination is going to look like. Biden,

we should note, says he wants Harris to replace him, but it's not that simple. Look, here are the unknowns at this point. Number one, will the party consolidate around her quickly? And there are signs as of last night that this is happening. And then the second question is, what process will the party arrive at to formalize this nomination? Will it happen at the convention? Will it happen in a roll call before the convention? And will it be done in a way that pleases everyone and doesn't alienate those who might have wanted a more open process? We also have to learn who her vice presidential running mate would be, and maybe that'll come quickly so the party can get its ducks lined up and move ahead. And maybe that'll take some time.

Finally, there is a question about money. There is at least a hundred million dollars that Biden has raised that's sitting there. And there's a strong legal argument that that can convey to Kamala Harris with no problems. But Republicans might choose to challenge it. And let me add one more unknown, and that, of course, is what do the voters think of all of this? In terms of that first part, that a number of people who had been seen as potential challengers to Harris have now instead so quickly endorsed her, people like Governors Gavin Newsom and Josh Shapiro, the Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg as well. What does that tell us? Well, there is a lot of strategery in this decision. If you're a rising Democrat and a

governor of either a red state or a big state, you have to game out what happens if you want to be the nominee in 2028. Do you hold your fire and get on board with the party now and go along with Kamala Harris? If she wins, then she's able to run for a second term. But if she loses, she'll have lost to Trump and the door is more open for you to run. But if you think that she's a weak candidate, you throw your hat out now. And what we're seeing is the party is consolidating around her. She's got momentum. And one important thing is the Democrats had their best day of fundraising in small dollar

donations after President Biden withdrew. ActBlue, which is their main small dollar fundraising platform, raised about $47 million, which suggests that the prospect of Kamala Harris unleashed a lot of pent-up energy in the party. And if you're looking to challenge her, you'll probably consider that and see that there is enthusiasm in the party base for Kamala Harris. Yeah, that $46.7 million that ActBlue said it pulled in, that was only through 9 p.m., so we've likely seen even more since then. If Kamala Harris, Aaron, is to be the Democratic standard bearer, what might her campaign look like? What are its strengths

and disadvantages, perhaps? Well, Luke, voters broadly, we know they've been unhappy with this choice of two men, one in his 70s, one in his 80s, a rematch of 2020. And maybe independent voters give the Democrats credit for changing the channel and putting a new option on the table. Democrat-based voters might get very enthusiastic here. Kamala Harris is the first woman of color. That counts a lot within the Democratic Party. And she allows the party to do what Joe Biden has not been able to do, which is to draw a contrast with Donald Trump. A lot of Democrats believe that there's an anti-MAGA majority in this country, that when people are reminded of January 6th and Trump's efforts to hold on to power, and beyond that,

when they're reminded of policy like Trump's role in overturning Roe v. Wade, when those things can be made most important and salient, Democrats win. So now Kamala Harris comes out. She's a person of color. Now Donald Trump is the oldest candidate between the two of them. And there's a chance that the focus can be thrown, as the Democrats want to, onto Donald Trump and his policy agenda and his persona, which they think is unpopular. The disadvantages? Well, Kamala Harris does not poll well. In all of our polling, she's polled just as poorly as Joe Biden has. The second thing is she's most associated with being Joe Biden's chief on immigration. And of all the issues we poll on, inflation, the economy, abortion, everything else, Joe Biden's handling of

immigration is the weakest. And that's what she's associated with. And it's Donald Trump's, one of his strongest issues. So they're going to go hard on her for immigration. They're going to look into her background as a prosecutor. And she's just not the same natural talent as a Barack Obama. Her campaign for presidency didn't make it out of the starting gate. She didn't even make it to the Iowa caucuses. So her political profile is historic, but also she so far hasn't been able to capitalize that in the public eye to build her own independent, strong identity. Given those challenges, as well as the potential opportunities as well that Harris has to define herself, what do we know about how this news is going over within the Trump campaign?

We should know. You and I were at the Republican convention. We heard a lot of speakers on stage referring to the Biden-Harris administration. So I guess they've not been totally caught off guard. That's right. Nikki Haley, in particular, spent a lot of her time going after Kamala Harris. That's right. Nikki Haley in particular spent a lot of her time going after Kamala Harris. Look, ever since June 27, everyone in the political world has been thinking,

what happens if Joe Biden withdraws? And so Kamala Harris has been on the mind of the Trump campaign and its allies. Now, we know that they've been in the field. The super PAC that supports Donald Trump has been testing messages, and they had an ad, an attack ad, against Kamala Harris all ready to go. And within hours of Biden withdrawing, that ad was on the air in Pennsylvania and Arizona and other swing states. So they are playing catch-up in figuring out how to message against her. They don't know who her vice presidential nominee is going to be yet, but they will have plenty of material to work with in messaging against her. That was Wall Street Journal editor Aaron Zittner.

Aaron, thank you so much for the update. Hey, good to be with you. Coming up, how markets are reacting to yesterday's news, plus a look at the continuing fallout from Friday's tech outage. We've got those stories and more after the break. We've got those stories and more after the break. Need a great reason to get up in the morning? Well, what about two? Right now, get a small, organic, fair trade coffee and a tasty bacon and egger breakfast sandwich for only $5 at A&W's in Ontario.

in Ontario. Well, it was a busy Sunday night for politics reporters, and it turns out for equities analysts, as we've seen a flurry of research notes come in overnight on what Biden ending his reelection bid could mean for markets. And here to explain what is being said is journal finance editor Alex Frangos. Alex, what's the mood? Markets kind of calm this morning, haven't seen a major reaction, but a lot of people are talking. What are they saying? Yeah, I mean, people are talking more about the long-term outlook. In terms of the short-term, there's not a lot to bet on. People were already expecting that Biden would bow out. The markets anticipate things in the future, and they anticipated this

move pretty well. In terms of those longer term ramifications, what are we talking about? Is it the odds of Democrats remaining in control? For instance, we'd also been talking about the Trump trade, which had sort of taken off among some investors recently on this notion that he was inevitably going to win back the White House. Is there any shift there? Yeah, well, I mean, I don't think anything is inevitable, but some investors have been positioning for a greater likelihood that Trump was going to win. And the perception is that means interest rates will have to be higher. The dollar will probably be stronger because you're going to have Trumpian policies of higher tariffs and not a big break on spending, possibly extension of

those tax cuts, if not more tax cuts. Now the question is, who's the Democratic nominee going to be? Is it Kamala Harris? And is she the same economically as Biden or a little bit different? So people will wait, see how things develop. And I think the real thing that matters here, obviously the presidential election is super important, but in terms of changing policy, it's who's going to win Congress. And that's really up in the air. And if Democrats end up holding the House and Trump gets elected, that's going to stymie him. On the same token, if the Democratic nominee wins and the Republicans take the Senate and maybe take the House, then that's going to stymie that person. Then you're not going to get a lot of change. That was Wall Street Journal finance editor Alex Frangos. Alex,

thanks for dropping by. Thank you. Meanwhile, in Washington, lawmakers today are set to get a lot of change. That was Wall Street Journal finance editor Alex Frangos. Alex, thanks for dropping by. Thank you. Meanwhile, in Washington, lawmakers today are set to get their first crack at grilling Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheadle over the security failures in the near assassination of former President Donald Trump. Cheadle will appear before the House Oversight Committee amid calls from a number of Republicans that she resign, The House Oversight Committee, amid calls from a number of Republicans that she resign, calls that she has thus far rebuffed. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department oversees the Secret Service, has voiced his continued confidence in Cheadle.

However, yesterday he appointed an independent panel to review the attempted assassination. The review is set to last 45 days. The worst may be over with, but it is still shaping up to be a rocky day for air travel, as the ripple effects of Friday's tech-fueled meltdown continue to be felt across the aviation industry. According to FlightAware, more than 600 flights within, into, or out of the U.S. have already been canceled today, on top of another nearly 500 delays, though that's a far cry from the 1,700 canceled flights yesterday and the more than 5,500 between Friday and Saturday. Delta and United have been among the hardest-hit airlines, while Southwest was relatively unscathed and American managed to bounce back fairly quickly. And in other markets news we're watching

today, China's central bank has unexpectedly cut a key policy rate in a bid to boost the country's flagging economy. Analysts say the seven-day reverse repo rate, which is used to manage short-term liquidity, is potentially being set up to play a starring role under a revamp of its monetary policy framework. The cut follows a host of data last week that showed China's lopsided recovery is losing steam. Australian oil company Woodside Energy has reached a deal to buy Houston-based natural gas firm Tellurian for about $900 million. The deal includes Tellurian's proposed driftwood liquefied natural gas development near Lake Charles, Louisiana, and it comes amid a global rush for energy deals. Woodside will pay $1 per Tellurian share, which closed at 57 cents on Friday and have jumped in pre-market trading this morning. And it is shaping up to be another busy earnings week.

Verizon is among the companies reporting today, while in the coming days we'll also get results from Tesla, Alphabet, Visa, General Motors, Ford, and many more. Visa, General Motors, Ford, and many more. And we'll get the latest temperature check on the economy later in the week when fresh GDP and home sales figures are released. And that's it for What's News for Monday morning. Today's show was produced by Kate Boulivant and Daniel Bach with supervising producer Christina Rocca, and I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.