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Deep Dive into the DNC and the Harris Campaign · Project 2028

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  Welcome to the fifth installment of Project 2028. This is the deep dive episode where
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  we will be focusing on Joe Biden's decision to step down and out of the race for re-election
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  and also the options the Democratic Party has going forward. And we are specifically
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  zoning in on Kamala and how she will be running, how the public is viewing her and also her
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  options for a vice president. So now we will be diving right in.
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  All right so basically we're going to start with Biden and just coming up to this he had
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  only been talking with a very few members of his close circle, not even the secretaries,
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  you know, defense, state, those guys who are very, very powerful in the world just in general.
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  He was basically talking with his two utmost campaign advisors Ron Klain I think was in
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  the conversation and a few others but it was kept extremely quiet. He's still isolating
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  with COVID and his team up until that point steadfastly, instantaneously defended his
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  candidacy in the race. His re-election campaign chair which is one of the people who's in
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  conversation with General Malley-Dillon pushed back on it on the appearance with MSNBC just
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  days before and the polling was not looking good for Biden. His biggest loss of the season
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  of 3.2 points which is just in this election for context is nearly two points higher than
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  what it should be what he used to be trailing by which is a ton of people and it was only
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  growing bigger by the day. On Sunday at around 2 Eastern Biden's PR pushed a message on social
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  medias stating that he would not run for another term. Later around 20 minutes he endorsed
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  Kamala after much speculation and this is one of the key things that he told his secretaries
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  and high ups, people who hadn't told before, he only told seven or ten people beforehand.
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  He told some people who are extremely powerful, the Joint Chiefs, remember like these are
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  people who should probably be in the know of this kind of stuff a minute before me and
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  you knew about this news which was quite shocking when that news came out to a lot of people
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  that he's only going to tell you a minute before not ten minutes, not an hour right
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  and obviously you'll probably leak to the media in that time but you also have to show
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  some deference and some respect to the people who have helped you so much and I don't think
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  giving them a minute before was that correct of a move to them.
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  And also right before this, I mean the calls to step down were just mounting, you had a
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  motley crew of Hollywood stars, billionaires, past and present politicians all calling them
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  to step down, a people showing nearly two thirds of Democrats wanted Biden to withdraw
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  from the race ricocheted through the White House earlier that week. A person of knowledge
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  said the Biden campaign only projected to raise 25% of the big donor money, so millions,
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  hundreds of thousands, that kind of thing, that it had originally projected to raise
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  in July and that was a big problem and that the money was kind of just almost drying up.
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  And they were called to step down Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader, House Speaker Nancy
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  Pelosi, House Minority Leader, Hacking Jeffries, all those kind of people were calling to step
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  down. Obama had personally spoken with Biden, Clinton had personally spoken with Biden.
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  Biden was feeling it from even his closest and most staunch defenders that he really
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  needed to seed his spot and wave for a new generation of leaders.
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  So as we noted earlier, Biden endorsed Harris by saying quote, my very first decision as
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  a party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my vice president and it's been
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  the best decision I've made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for
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  Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats, it's time to come together
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  and beat Trump. Let's do this. She has also been endorsed by Representative Nancy Pelosi
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  saying my enthusiastic support for Kamala Harris for president is official, personal
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  and political. She said this in a statement on Monday afternoon. She also said, officially
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  I have seen Kamala Harris's strength and courage as a champion for working families, notably
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  fighting for a woman's right to choose. Personally, I've known Kamala Harris for decades as rooted
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  in strong values, faith and a commitment to public service. Politically, making a mistake,
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  Kamala Harris as a woman in politics is brilliantly astute and I have full confidence that she
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  will lead us to victory in November. She was also endorsed by Hillary and Bill Clinton,
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  former secretary of state and president respectively. Also, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Representative
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  Jim Clyburn, the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. He was a candidate if Biden dropped
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  out and didn't endorse Kamala. He could have been a candidate, but now he wouldn't even
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  be a candidate for vice president because he also lives in California like Kamala and
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  they can't have the vice president and president from the same state. She was also endorsed
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  by Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, along with Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky.
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  And on the flip side, she hasn't been endorsed by former president Obama, although he has
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  made a post about his deep admiration and respect for President Biden after he stepped
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  down. So I think this is really interesting that he hasn't endorsed her yet. And also,
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  obviously he wasn't expected to endorse her, but Donald Trump has expressed frustration
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  that she is the one running because he says that they've wasted time and money running
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  against Biden. Now I'm going to be giving you a little bit of background on Kamala.
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  Kamala was born on October 20th, 1964 in Oakland, California. She graduated from Howard University
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  with a degree in political science and economics. Harris earned her law degree from the University
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  of California. She began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office
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  before being elected as the district attorney of San Francisco. In 2010, Harris was elected
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  as the attorney general of California, becoming the first woman and first African-American
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  to hold the position. Harris was elected as the junior United States senator from California
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  in 2017, becoming the second African-American woman and the first South Asian-American senator
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  in history. She gained national prominence during her tenure as a senator and was known
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  for her tough questioning of witnesses during Senate hearings. Kamala Harris has made history
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  as the first woman, the first black woman, and the first person of South Asian descent
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  to be elected vice president of the United States. She is known for advocating for healthcare
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  reform, immigration reform, criminal justice reform, and women's rights throughout her
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  political career. She has secured the commitments from the delegates necessary to be the presidential
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  nominee. So regarding kind of the legality of Kamala and her getting basically all situated
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  as mostly a presidential campaign, she's going to inherit the 1,300 Biden campaign staffers.
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  She's going to inherit a lot of the money, but not though campaigns are only allowed
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  to contribute roughly $2,000 from campaign to campaign. So the actual money from Biden's
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  campaign is going to be interesting on how he transfers that. There's a few different
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  ways he could refund it back. He could get it through a kind of a PAC thing. But all
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  the PAC money, by the way, that is kind of tied to Biden right now, can all be now spent
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  on her campaign. She is going to likely take the nomination, so the PACs could immediately
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  start saying, money, remember PACs or super PACs as they're known are super political
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  action committees. So they're big organizations with unlimited funding caps set up basically
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  just to funnel money into the campaign with much less campaign finance restrictions. If
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  he doesn't want this to where his money is, the process is really tricky. The money, it's
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  hardy hard enough, and Biden kind of trying to get in the way of that is going to be kind
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  of interesting. I doubt heavily though that's going to happen though. So with all the reporting
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  that the AP said that they have a majority of delegates, she will now most likely be
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  on the ticket for the President United States nominee from the DNC. She become the face
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  of the administration's campaign to protect the reproductive rights, you know, Roe v.
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  Wade, all that kind of stuff. She has endorsement from Pelosi and all is very important. All
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  state head chairs of their DNCs, or the committees and within, so DNCs just meaning committees,
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  not convention, within their respective states. She was loyal President to the ally defending
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  them even during the debate with that slow start, quote unquote. Days after the debate,
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  Ms. Harris, she kept reiterating her support for Biden. She has strong name recognition
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  and just wrote some records. 51% of Americans disapprove of Harris, well 37% approve according
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  to most polling averages. She is just more disapproval than Trump and roughly six points
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  less disapproval than Biden. So she is quite good to run against Trump on the disapproval
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  side. They don't have full polling averages yet. She has lost to Trump in almost every
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  poll they've taken so far for the past year, but she's certainly doing better than Biden.
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  So she has time to kind of evolve and wait. And that transitions us to the talk about
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  VP candidates. The first one that I really think it has a good chance and it has a lot
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  of viability is Andy Bashar. He's endorsed Harris. He's from Kentucky. He's a rising
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  Republican star. He beat Trump endorsed candidates in the Republican stronghold of Kentucky,
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  a red state. But most of all, the country is sadly uncomfortable with the fact that
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  a woman minority leader could become the leader of the country. He's a Christian white man
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  and that may help the ticket, especially with Americans set at uncomfortability with kind
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  of the ticket of Kamala, especially if she were to appoint somebody with the same kind
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  of ethnic credentials as herself, according to the Associated Press. So he's a lawyer
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  by trade. He won state during general in 2015. He unseated Trump backed Republican, you know,
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  Matt Bevin in 2019. He entered politics with a strong pedigree and forever political sense
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  as he's the son of the two term state governor, Steve Beshear. He's faced tough political
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  obstacles, obviously growing up in Kentucky, being a Democrat. It doesn't necessarily entail
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  a easy way to power. He has to deal with an extremely and almost entirely GOP controlled
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  legislature supermajority and Republican lawmakers have really gotten the way of some of his
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  priorities. He really wanted state funded preschool for every Kentucky, but the GOP,
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  they are kind of tried to block that. That's all kind of on Beshear. He supports abortion
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  rights, but he has kind of tailored his message a bit in Kentucky, especially to kind of appeal
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  to the general public. And that's kind of it on Beshear. He he would be really good
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  addition to the Kamala Harris campaign and would do really a great job at kind of filling
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  the void that some Americans see as a takeaway.
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  Another candidate that is high on our radar is Josh Shapiro. Shapiro won a huge victory
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  in Pennsylvania, proving he knows how to stump a swing state. He is a popular center left
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  Democrat who'd be the nation's first Jewish president. He's also on people's radar to
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  be the next president. However, since Kamala seems to be taking that position as the next
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  nominee for the Democratic Party, he should be a very good running mate for her. So since
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  he's the governor of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania is a swing state, that'll be really helpful
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  to Kamala as he is the governor. So he will help her win over Pennsylvania and get those
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  electoral college votes, especially considering that former President Trump won that state
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  very, very slimly in the 2016 election. The governor, who previously served as the state's
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  attorney general, has worked across party lines during his tenure. He made national
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  headlines last year after quickly rebuilding a collapsed bridge on a crucial Philadelphia
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  highway, a major political victory for a first term governor. People have said that he's
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  exceptionally normal and that is a really good thing, especially considering Kamala
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  would be our first woman president and our second ever African American president. And
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  him being a white male is really good for her ticket. And he's also Jewish, as I mentioned
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  earlier, so that adds some religious diversity. The final politician who is high on our radar
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  and also other people's radar is Gretchen Whitmer. She's won two tough elections in
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  her home state of Michigan, where she's gotten the quote, big Gretch Midwestern persona.
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  And she, like Harris, could make history. Coastal Democrats already fallen over her
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  appearances on TV. She served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2001 to 2006
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  and in the Michigan Senate from 2006 to 2015. In 2018, she was elected as the 49th governor
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  of Michigan. Whitmer has focused on issues such as infrastructure, education, health
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  care and clean water initiatives during her tenure as governor. She gained national attention
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  for her handling of the Flint water crisis and for her response to the COVID-19 pandemic
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  in Michigan. Whitmer has been an advocate for expanding Medicaid, increasing funding
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  for public education and improving infrastructure throughout the state. She was selected to
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  deliver the Democratic response to the State of the Union address in 2020. Other options
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  for vice president or presidential nominee are Gavin Newsom, who Luchano already talked
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  about. Raphael Warnock, who's the senator from Georgia. Mark Kelly, who is a senator
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  from Arizona. Chris Murphy, who is a senator from Connecticut. JB Pritzker, who is the
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  governor of Illinois. And Wes Moore, who is the governor of Maryland. The last thing we're
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  going to be talking about is people's opinions on Kamala. A lot of Gen Z has been calling
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  Kamala brat. This stems from Charlie XCX, a world renowned pop star, her summer 2024
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  album release titled, quote, brat, which is a nightclub favorite and features a collection
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  of songs that are all about the female gaze and how younger generations of women aspire
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  to live. So Charlie describes the brat girl is a girl who is a little messy and likes
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  to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes who feels herself, but then also has a breakdown,
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  but parties through it. It's very honest, very blunt and a little bit volatile, does
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  dumb things, but like it's brat. You're brat. That's brat. Charlie XCX has appeared to
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  endorse Harris on Sunday by writing, quote, Kamala is brat. Kamala's campaign has embraced
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  this moment by reposting the show of support using the album's signature green color and
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  typeface on one of its social media profiles and posting, quote, brat themed memes. People
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  have been making edits of Kamala to this album, brat. And if you would like to watch them,
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  you could just search up Kamala brat on Twitter and I'm sure you will see an abundance of
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  edits. Another thing that people have been discussing is whether to call her Kamala or
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  Harris. So for instance, would you say, well, you would not call her Kamala. It's Kamala,
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  but people are discussing whether you would say that, oh, the democratic candidate could
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  be Kamala or oh, it could be Harris. For instance, people normally refer to the current president
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  as Biden instead of Joe and the former president as Trump, not Donald and such so on and so
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  on like Obama over Barack. So people are like, well, is this because she's a woman and we
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  don't respect her as much? But then other people are like, no, no, she's campaigned
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  this way in the past, which means we should call her this. So it's an interesting thing
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  to think about and something that people are discussing. And then just again, with the
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  opinions people have of her, some people say that she was the worst part of Biden's term.
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  And then people are also saying that progressive white women should be voting for her because
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  it will be very telling if the people who voted in high numbers for Hillary don't vote
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  for Harris, which could be perceived as a race thing if they were willing to vote for
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  a white woman, not a woman of color. So that's another interesting thing to think about.
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  And then one woman said, and I quote, to all my fellow white women, we are not letting
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  a rapist win over the first female president parentheses again, close parentheses, end
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  quote. And then also something that we have really noticed on social media lately is really
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  crude sexualization of Kamala Harris compared to male counterparts, which while they receive
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  negative attention, they don't receive any of this. So just some things literally from
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  the first five minutes of scrolling on Twitter or X, you could see so many different memes
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  and posts, all really making crude comments about Kamala and saying things such as she
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  must have slept her way to power. And that's the only way she could have gotten as far
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  as she did. And saying other really horrible things and calling her really nasty names.
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  Just a preference, this is not something we haven't seen before. We've seen this with
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  Hillary in the 2016 election. We saw it a little bit with Nikki Haley and we've seen
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  it with tons of other female politicians who have run and who are planning to run or who
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  have currently run for any position from vice president to president to Senate to governor
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  even. And this is something we don't see happen with male politicians often. It's not saying
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  that it hasn't happened and it won't happen, but it has not happened in the same ways,
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  to the same extent or in the same amounts. This also seems very hypocritical that people
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  are shaming Kamala or making comments about her seemingly sleeping her way to the top
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  and they're not really, these people are not criticizing those who are actually either
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  convicted or accused of sexual assault, Brett Kavanaugh and Donald Trump respectively, or
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  who have cheated on say all of their lives, Donald Trump. And that should be it today
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  on the VP situation. We'll update you guys as it's evolving as this is going very quickly.
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  So we're going to try to get this podcast out as quickly as possible. Thanks for listening
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  to the deep dive. If you guys like the show, go to project2028.pod or Instagram. If you
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  don't like the show, don't go there. Thank you guys for listening. It was great. See
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  you next time. Bye.