It's a Kamalanomenon
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What a weekend. Yet another, yet another time. Another weekend ruined by Democratic politics being wishy-washy until midday brunch on Sunday when they were like, here's everything you've been waiting for. The American fever dream come true.

Yeah, this is literally the best weekend that's been taken over so far this year, I would say. Yes. You know, best weekend scrolling on my phone endlessly. I didn't think it was good. You know, like we kind of knew something was going to happen. They were like, maybe Sunday. And I'm like, there's no way.

And so I just foolishly went out grocery shopping, enjoying my day. And then I drove 90 miles an hour home with Natalie. And I was like, I'm sorry, I have to abandon you. I have to immediately report this news. Oh, it's rough. Rough to be in the news business. It was good though. It was the day that just kept getting better. It did. Well, we're going to take you through that. I thought that it was either going to be Monday or Thursday after Benjamin and Yahoo's speech. But

It wasn't. And thank you. Thank you for your service, Joseph Robin and Biden. Well, I think definitely it speaks to the fact that this was on him and his staff has said that they did not know that he was going to make the statement. They, of course, have to write the tweet for him or whatever. But he was like, do this now.

So really no one was ready as evidenced by the fact that Rachel Maddow came running into the MSNBC studio, lights, camera, action, not a stitch of makeup, like a surgeon being called into the emergency room at 3 a.m. or something like she was.

She was not ready. So when I tell you the media was not ready, they weren't. But I think they did a good job pivoting. No, no one was ready. Apparently, he had decided the night before alongside, I think it was Mike Donilon and one of his other advisors. And they had not told anyone until the next morning. They told the very senior campaign staff. And then apparently, they only told everyone else on the campaign one minute before he sent out the tweet with the letter. Right.

So that is how it played out. It was very, very short term. And I imagine people were sort of gaming out how they would handle it if he did suddenly drop, but everyone mobilized very quickly. So this was, I mean, what I found pretty interesting was that I got a few categories of texts immediately. One was...

I am so excited about her. How do I work for her? Two was, where do I donate? And three was, I feel bad for Joe Biden. And suddenly all this anger towards him dissolved. And that's because this was the patriotic and selfless move. What it ultimately proved was that the two parties are actually different. Democrats don't just fall in line behind its standard bearer when the voters are clearly voicing opposition.

And while this was a tough three weeks for the party, Joe Biden will ultimately end up being remembered for making a selfless decision for the sake of the country and for being the one to pass the torch, even if she loses.

even if she loses, because you can see the reaction to her already. I actually said that to Natalie in the car. I was like, I'd rather lose with her and feel like we really tried than to have had this cloud over us this whole time, just sort of like a rusty anchor on progress. Right. Totally. The way that, even though the way that this happened was bad throughout these three weeks, it also could have been so much worse because

He was given a lot of time and data to make this decision, and he also had many chances after the debate to redeem himself by proving his performance again and again. It is really sad, but I think it actually maybe warrants a broader discussion about how we treat our elders in the face of aging and what drives Americans to insist on working until their last dying breath, especially in really high-pressure jobs that require being on around the clock and why that is...

Why is that part of the American character? And can we not encourage people as they age to move on to other sweeter parts of life? And maybe it's because we don't respect elder, you know, our elders enough, but that's something we should maybe think about. Will we make your job?

who you are, right? Exactly. I mean, that's the DC cliche is the first thing you say is, hi, my name is V and what do you do? We're so identified by our jobs. Right. Exactly. Because we spend pretty much all our time doing that. All the time. And it's apparent the difference between someone who is 81 or 78, like the

like Donald Trump is, the oldest person to run for president now. But Kamala Harris was reportedly on the phone for 10 hours yesterday securing endorsements from within the party, and those results have shown through. Absolutely. And I know that folks probably who listened to the show had a lot of thoughts about the way this was done being not cool. And the unfortunate part is the public will never have the full picture of what was happening behind the scenes.

What we saw was the slow death by paper cuts and humiliation of Joe Biden. And that wasn't fair. The questions about his ability to run began long before that debate performance, though. And there was this Democrat strategist attempt to make Kamala more front facing and take Joe off the stage.

that goes all the way back to the beginning of June. There was a document that circulated in left-leaning circles called Unburdened, the case for Kamala. And the Daily Beast is the only outlet that I saw that reported on that document or published the document. And again, this was way before the debate. So I assure you that the choice to step away from being the candidate was Joe's alone, or I don't know, Sammy.

Maybe he listened to our podcast episode, The Case for Kamala, where I said that I needed him to be the full-time president, not a part-time president and a full-time candidate, because the issues that we're facing in our nation are so incredibly urgent and sensitive. And he is truly the best, most skilled person in politics to deal with all the international fuckery and to steer this ship home. So that's what he said in his goodbye. I like to think he listens to our show. Totally. Totally.

He selflessly passed that baton, not because of the media, not because of the uncommitted voters, the debate, or his age. These things all were in play well before he decided to step down. I believe he stepped down because, somewhat ironically, he got COVID, which made him have to be alone with his thoughts and reflect and think what is best for this nation. And he chose, once again, as he always has, at the cost of his own dreams for himself, to put the country first. And keep watch for us for the next five months.

to ensure that we have a country to hand to the next generation. And ideally, that person we hand it to is Kamala Harris. If history is fair, it will remember Joe finally. Yeah, I hope that he has confidence in the person he picked to be his successor. And I truly believe that the good thing is that he will not be remembered for these three weeks. He will be remembered for the decision he made.

no matter what happens. And ironically, Joe digging in for so long actually gave enough time for Republicans to waste their entire convention running against Joe Biden. This is dark Brandon. They lost. You know he did it on purpose maybe. This is dark Brandon's last stand. Dark Brandon's last stand was to make them waste their convention and their entire strategy on running against Joe Biden. And that, you know, even if they had a month to turn their strategy around, that would have been helpful for them.

So they waste their entire convention. And they also chose J.D. Vance as the VP candidate on the assumption that they would be running against Joe and they wanted to use his faux populism to win over the Rust Belt. So thank you again to Joe. Kamala has pretty broad support, but also Joe Biden, I think, has gotten the respectful treatment. Mitt Romney even made a statement very different from the rest of the way Republicans acted yesterday.

He made a statement that said, I'm a classic Republican and he's a classic Democrat. Obviously, President Biden and I didn't usually see eye to eye. I oppose many of his initiatives, but we found common ground on infrastructure, Ukraine, the Electoral Count Act, and...

Like, these are all the anti-coup stuff. Adding religious liberty protections to the marriage bill, gun safety measures, and chip manufacturing. Others will judge his presidency. However, having worked with him these past few years, I respect President Biden. His decision to withdraw from the race was right and is in the best interest of the country. Anne and I send warm personal wishes to the president and the first lady.

Yeah, that is a classy guy that Mitt Romney is a classy guy. It's the last time we had a classy guy running on the Republican ticket that wasn't co-opted by the Tea Party or the Freedom Caucus or Trumpism or any of this kind of stuff. And it kind of does remind you of that John McCain Obama election cycle where there was somebody in the audience who was trying to say that Obama was a bad man. And McCain was like, no, no, he's not. He's a good man. We just decide we just have different

paths for where we think the country should go, but ultimately we both believe in this country and its greatness. And I think

I think people are craving that. I think they want to see a coming together. We're seeing it on the left, even people uniting around Kamala in ways that I didn't think were possible to heal. Absolutely. Absolutely. Within hours, within minutes. Oh, for sure. Because she is an inspiring candidate. And whether or not you agree entirely with her policy, whether you agree not really at all with her policy, what the alternative is, is Donald Trump. So really,

Anything is better than that for president. Right. And, you know, everything he stands for, Project 2025 and to take over of the courts and ending real true democracy as we know it in America. That is exactly what I think people are craving. They're craving the ability to have a conversation respectfully, to keep to close the Overton window.

of what is acceptable. And that is really, you see it in the things he specifically called out there. He calls out things that are the cornerstone of democracy, non-election denial, the Electoral Count Act, Ukraine, defending democratic values and the West through our military. And I think that you're right. That is ideally what can be built through

the Harris ticket. And I expect there will be Republicans who will endorse her. So I'm excited about her. We're going to get to it later, but we can spoil at least one of them now. Nikki Haley's voter pack endorsed Kamala Harris. So, I mean, I think you will see a lot of this because where we didn't, where we all thought we had to hold our breath until 2028, at least. I felt like what Joe calls the breathing room, right? It's not totally perfect, but you get a little bit more breathing room.

I never get away from my phone or computer. And I was like, I'm going to go to the gym and like go swimming. Like I felt like I had 20 more minutes in my day where I could do something and not worry about the world falling apart because it looked like things were going so well. And I think people needed that. And I think there's a little bit of hurt feelings to still heal in the democratic party with who they were previously calling blue Mago were the only Joes. Those folks were,

are an equal part of us winning this election and are going to have a big piece in supporting Kamala and moving this forward. But, you know, it might take another day or two for those folks to feel re-included in the decision. But I think just seeing the momentum that she has, to me, was inspiring. And I know that we can do this. Right. Well, the way people reacted, I mean, in general, it's sad. It is sad. And if you really believe that Joe Biden was the best way to

best option to continue forward, then taking a second to mourn that is sensible. And the

What I would say is, again, he picked a wonderful successor. He picked someone who can really meet the moment and bring back a sane, stable democracy. That's really what's at stake here. And she stands for that in every way. So I think the relief that you're talking about, this is how I would describe the feeling. You're about to crash into something. You avoid the crash.

After knowing you're about to crash for quite a while, you avoid the crash, but you're still driving. You're not there yet. You're still on a rocky, bumpy road. You're still there. You're not at your destination. It is absolutely that. Life is a highway. I want to ride it all night long. And Kamala has already given her first remarks yesterday. She had a pre-scheduled event with student athletes at the White House. These were her first public remarks since Biden dropped out. Here's what she said about him.

And I wanted to say a few words about our president. 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. I mean, again, class act, class act. But, you know, there wasn't, it wasn't everybody that was ready to buzz around the K-Hive right away. There was a chance. There were some people who were like, well, maybe not.

Maybe it won't be who Joe Biden wanted it to be, who he designated his survivor two different times. Maybe it should be Joe Manchin or Marianne Williamson or RFK Jr. should be allowed to join the Democratic Convention or any of these other folks. Right. It's like they're both arguing that they're worried about ballot issues and they want to replace her on the ballot that she was on.

So I thought it was pretty egregious when people were like, well, she could stay the vice president. We'll pick a new president candidate. I was like, why would we do that? Can you imagine? First of all, I'm so glad that that didn't happen. And that's why people with a lot of money shouldn't always be the person making the decision about who should be running. Because some people were like, just make it Gretchen Whitmer Harris and like,

Okay, why? Even Gretchen Whitmer had to say herself, please don't do this to me. Don't pretend like that's what I asked for. Yeah, I mean, even just minutes, I think it was a half hour before we're recording this. We're recording this Monday, early afternoon, 2 p.m. ET. The Washington Post editorial board put out an op-ed arguing that there should be a contested convention. However, all the participants that they argue for have already endorsed Kamala.

And then literally one minute later, Nancy Pelosi endorses Kamala Harris. She was like one of the few outstanding people. I don't really see a great argument for making her not the nominee. And there was this great video you had sent me from a California delegate named Jess Craven about why the suggestion that she should not be the nominee is patently absurd. I would just like to give you a little piece of cautionary advice about

Do not mess with Kamala Harris. That is who we want. We have already had one candidate taken away from us that we wanted very much. You did not consult with us. You did what you thought you needed to do. We're pissed. But we also love Kamala enough that we will accept it because we are excited about her. Don't test our patience.

That is the candidate we want. We don't want somebody else. You have all the fun you want helping her pick a vice presidential candidate. We are excited as fuck for Kamala Harris. I love Jess Craven. You want to talk about somebody who has been a grassroots workhorse for the Democrats for decades. It's Jess. She's incredible. And she's on TikTok and Instagram if you want to follow her.

And Kamala Harris is a person who jumped right into action. There was not one leak from her office about all the things. There was no leaks after that donor phone call. There were no leaks coming from her office. She had a tightly buttoned up ship over there and she was ready to go. Now, one thing that she did want to make clear is nobody's going to lose their job.

There is already an infrastructure in place, all the field offices that were ready for Biden. And she wanted folks to know that like, if you want to stay with us, we'd love to have you. There'll be a couple of changes, of course, to like different key positions. But overall, everyone gets to keep their job and their structure, which I think is critical. Like that's critical and so important. And yesterday she took that train to Wilmington, Delaware, like Joe Biden has so many times.

to the campaign headquarters. And the current campaign manager, originally of the Biden campaign, who has also worked on Beto O'Rourke's campaign in the past, told the staff that everyone will still have a job if they want one. And I just think, what a great way to receive your new boss, right? Like, I'm grateful for you. I believe in you. I don't even know you, but if you're good enough for Joe, you're good enough for me. And that's that consistency we need. They were already essentially working for her to some extent because it's their ticket. Right.

The difference is there will be a different strategy because of who she is as a candidate and who she attracts as her natural voter base. And then who the new vice presidential nominee picks is kind of their constituency that will bring home voters to the Democratic ticket.

So she's, I mean, she's, like you said, sprung into action. She's been securing endorsements. She's meeting, she's going to be meeting with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. And the one person who was considered most likely to be her competition, as you referenced earlier, was Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. She announced Monday morning that she is actually going to be Kamala's campaign co-chair with this video.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer here. Today I am fired up to endorse Kamala Harris for President of the United States. In Vice President Harris, Michigan voters have a presidential candidate we can count on to lower our costs, protect our freedoms, and build an economy that works for working people. She's a former prosecutor, a champion for reproductive freedom, and I know she's got Michigan's back.

So it's hard to argue that this was a coronation. There was room for competition and the fields cleared itself for Kamala Harris. And it seems to be basically a done deal. She's been endorsed by enough people within the Democratic Party, heavyweights and the masses. And her campaign has said that she will have enough delegates to officially secure the nomination by this Wednesday, July 24th.

There are also no legitimate legal claims because Biden was only ever the presumptive nominee himself. He had not been formally nominated yet, and she was on the ticket that 14 million primary voters cast a ballot for, like Jess Craven said.

So, you know, there were questions about the date. When are they going to be doing the official nomination because of certain state laws that were maybe intended to force them to do it earlier? So if the DNC ends up doing this virtual roll call this week to prevent any potential legal issues that pertain to these ballot deadlines as a precaution because they are not necessarily legitimate in the first place,

They will be nominating Kamala Harris officially, and then they will run the convention essentially as usual, but probably with some way bigger musical talent, if I had to guess. Okay, so you and I applied for DNC credentials when we were not that super excited to go, but you got to go. You got to be in the room. We have a journalistic integrity to bring you the behind the scenes, and I got to tell you,

That credential is like gold now. People are like, do you think that they're still accepting? Is there any chance you could get me in? Can you? I was like, first of all, what's the way do you think I have on the, on like DNC credentials? Like I could ask someone. I was like, who am I going to ask? The secret service forms were due in June. Like, no, but now you have this front row seat. And what I'm actually really excited about is there's this creator cohort that's going and it is predominantly black women because they of course had the foresight to think,

you know what, maybe, maybe I'll get to see Kamala and I want to be in the room. And so I think we're going with a great group of people and I'm really excited about it. It really seems like this transition from Joe to Kamala, the biggest issue they're facing is if they had pre-printed a bunch of dark branded merch, what are we going to do with that?

And I assure you, it's not nearly as big a problem as the guys sitting on the side of the road that follow the Trump circus around with their Let's Go Brandon and FJB merch. Those guys are the ones who are really going to face the brunt financially of this switch. Well, honestly, the Dark Brandon stuff is not out of date. You know, he still...

did a great job. We stand this. He's not irrelevant. And I think that he is probably going to be able to campaign for her and be a surrogate for her just on a much less pressure-filled schedule as it should be. I know that we're going to see a lot of dark Brandon in the next five months. He's already talked about putting term limits on the Supreme Court. He is unburdened

By the context.

Kathy Hochul, Jared Polis, Bill Murphy. You've got the big name Democrats like Jim Clyburn, Elizabeth Warren, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, the number two ranking House Democrat, Minority Whip Catherine Clark, Mark Kelly, our astronaut friend, which I am gunning for a Kamala Mark Kelly ticket because the kids on TikTok were saying we could call it the Cocoa Knot.

Oh, yeah. I mean, that is... Because he's an astronaut. He has a chance. I was like, the merch makes itself. He has a chance. We're going to be going through all the potential VT picks. AOC, The Squad, Bat Raphael, Warnock, Jasmine, Crockett. I mean, I'm not going to list them all off. Literally everyone. Both Clintons, Secretary Buttigieg, Deb Haaland. And when it comes to groups, you've got Congressional Black Caucus came out immediately for her. The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Emily's List, Somos PAC-EU.

the Jewish democratic council of America, the AFT union, and a really big one that we know her friend LaFonza Butler from back in California, Fonza Butler, who took Dianne Feinstein's Senate seat over for the, to safe, keep it to the next election is the one who got her the service employees international union, which represents 1.9 million hotel and hospitality workers. That's a lot of votes. Salt of the earth Democrats though.

Yeah. And like we said, Nikki Haley's voter pack endorsed Kamala. And Nikki Haley sort of preordained this. She said a bunch of times on the campaign trail when she was running that the party that ditches the 80-year-old first will win the election. She said it's going to be me or Kamala Harris. Listen to this. It will either be me or it will be Kamala Harris. It will either be me or Kamala Harris. It will either be me or it will be Kamala Harris. It's either going to be me or it's going to be Kamala Harris. I know I shouldn't revel. It will either be me

me in other people's misery. But I listened to that so much, so much more than I should. Cause it just, you know, it brings me joy to see, to see a woman be right. And Nikki Haley really called this. We were looking to the astrology girlies. We should have been checking the star charts with Nikki Haley. Is it too late for Nikki Haley to endorse Kamala Harris? Uh,

She could switch her endorsement.

to campaign against her. Yeah. So far they've tried her laugh. Homophobic, misogynoir. Like she should lean into every insult as praise. Right. Especially because they're so dumb. The insults. It will drive him nuts. Yeah. Well, the best they've come up with is her laugh is annoying. So what I would advise you listeners, if someone says that, just be like,

Are you not going to vote? Are you going to vote for Donald Trump because of her laugh? That's how I would position the question. Here's what's happening on TikTok. There was a tweet that went out saying, please stop.

posting pictures of her laugh or trying to meme her laugh because the kids on TikTok actually like it. So they're like stitching it and it's giving her positive impact because they're like, yes, another hot cut with the laugh or the coconuts meme. So it's not working when they're trying to make fun of her because she is camp. So the more camp you give her, it's the closer you put her to Chapel Roan and Beyonce and Lady Gaga and RuPaul and everybody else. And that's endearing. That's lovely. She is perfectly calibrated to the time.

And not just like the broader time, I mean the back half of 2024 specifically. H2 2024. There is one question I feel that a lot of people have, which is why have the Obamas not endorsed Kamala yet? And if you get into the palace entry reporting, as I have around how the party leadership actually went about convincing Biden that he wasn't going to be able to win, it was those individuals who,

who it fell on to demonstrate that to him. And Obama was one of those people. And it's important to understand that those people's relationships go way back. And they have interpersonal dynamics that suggest, to me, it possibly actually made Biden more resistant to them for a few reasons. So like Nancy Pelosi, who just endorsed her, the Obamas, Chuck Schumer. A lot of this has been reported on. So you can find where I'm making these assumptions based on

So there is famously lingering resentment from 2016 when Biden wanted to run for president just after Beau Biden had died the year before. And he had perceived Obama as pulling for Hillary, whereas Obama's side of the story is like didn't seem like you were really in a great place to run for president, which to me seems highly rational the year after a parent loses their second child.

Biden evidently saw this as Obama doubting him yet again and party leaders doing the same. The George Clooney op-ed and the pod bros going in on the need for a new candidate probably felt to Biden like a flying monkey situation and that he was using his people to come for him. There's also the fact that Michelle Obama is a close friend with Hunter Biden's ex-wife, Kathleen Buell. And

And there's reporting that Michelle Obama was angry on Kathleen's behalf about how she was, her friend was treated in the aftermath of the divorce around 2015, 2016. So there weren't great vibes for, it seems a bit between her and the Bidens either. So I think Obama and Nancy Pelosi, because

They did not feel that it was going to be effective. They really didn't want to be perceived as pulling for Kamala. But reportedly, the Obamas actually have a good relationship with her. I predict he will be a DNC speaker, if not both he and Michelle.

So my sense is that if he had jumped right on the Kamala endorsement train, it would have confirmed Biden's narrative and possibly undermined her taking this bigger endorsement. It would have seemed like, oh, they were really pulling for her specifically. They didn't really want a competition. And maybe that would have had an impact on how people perceived her nomination. So my guess is they're probably waiting to give it some space like Nancy Pelosi was.

Maybe they've even endorsed her by the time this comes out. Maybe they can use it to kill a bad news cycle in the future. That's my cynical take. Right.

That is my perception of what happened there. I think you're right. I think you're right. I think that also something like if Pelosi and Biden and the Clintons all came out yesterday straight off, it would have looked like a victory lap or like rubbing salt in a wound. And what him not giving the endorsement to is it didn't suck up the news cycle either. The news had to try and fill this space while they were waiting for the Obama endorsement. For whatever reason, his vote is so much more important than the $80 million she raised or the millions of people who changed their like- Well, she hadn't raised that yet.

I'm just saying, though, like they had to fill the story. And so they had to start to talk about each individual governor that was coming out and created a new cycle around the slow drip of support that ended up in whitewater by the end of the night. It was so intense. So, you know, I'm glad for him kind of sitting out into your point. The idea is that you can create another newsworthy moment later.

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Max Bankman, I'm the new doctor. Welcome aboard the Odyssey. ABC Thursdays. This ship is heaven. We're tending to our past with our dreams. I'm in. From 911 executive producer Ryan Murphy comes a splashy new drama on a luxury cruise ship with Joshua Jackson and Don Johnson. It's your job to keep everyone alive. She's in V-fit. One, two, three. Clear. Clear.

I have a pulse. You're going to be okay. Dr. Odyssey, Thursdays, 9, 8 central on ABC and stream on Hulu. Welcome back friends. Now that we got the nuts and the bolts kind of out of the way, I want to talk about the culture's reaction to her because there is a funness here and we haven't had a funness and I want to lean into the fun. Um, I had some people didn't like that. I lent into the fun yesterday when I posted like a coconut meme, but I'm like different people learn different ways. Not everything can

be so straight-laced and academic. And I think it is very evident that I am supporting Kamala Harris for president given the alternative. I don't think this is like a, as a journalist, you're not being objective enough. Like as an American, a woman and a queer, like, come on, man, this is pretty obvious. Like, and I think I owe it to the audience to be

outwardly clear with my position. We also have dissected her views and her career. It's not going to be in every video you make about her. So if someone would like to know about that, go back and listen to our July 4th episode called The Case for Kamala. And again, remember this is

advocating for someone in the context of Project 2025, wanting to overrule American elections and take our rights to bodily autonomy. So it's not just about, is she perfect? She's no less perfect, no less imperfect than anybody else. And that's kind of my answer to the shallow criticisms of her.

Yes. And the fact is, like, we're not in a normal time. And I do yearn for the time when the choice is a little bit closer for me. My voting history is George W. Bush, McCain, Romney, Hillary Clinton, Bush.

Biden. So like I've actually voted Republican more often than not. And that was when I was a younger person before I actually understood what was going on. And I just voted the way my dad wanted me to. But I do look for a time when I don't think we'll have the Democrat Republican split like we used to, but maybe it's like an even more progressive candidate who could go up against her next time. And now we're kind of moving that window further left. And that would be a harder choice for me perhaps. But right now,

I just think it's so obvious there's no reason for me to try to hide it or fake it. And I don't think other people are trying to hide it or fake it either, which was surprising and exciting to me because supporting Joe Biden was a lonely, lonely place to be on social media and really put you under a big target for a lot of people who were very contrarian about him.

or very rightfully critical about some of the choices he made. And I think once Kamala is president, then we'll have some things to be rightfully critical of her about because she's not going to be perfect. We're not going to like everything. That's democracy. Everybody gets a little. Not everybody gets everything they want, right? But she has captured the culture with CharlieXCX tweeting Kamala is brat, which spawned the

The gays on Fire Island, I don't know how they did it, but they came up with brat t-shirts like within minutes. Well, I think they maybe had them on hand because brat. I hope so. Kamala is brat. We have a breakdown on Betches.com about what brat is because when people ask you to explain it, it's just like you can't explain it. It's a feeling. It's just a vibe. It's an aura. Like I said, she's perfectly calibrated to H2 2024 because that is brat energy.

So you got to know it. Get acquainted with the videos, the music. It is candy to the ears. I love the album. And yeah, she's not, Charli XCX isn't even an American, but she has really captured the summer. Kesha also danced to the little viral thing that's like, do you think you fell out of a coconut tree? Ha ha ha.

dance and goes into the Kesha song. I love that. Yeah. Ariana Grande posted Joe's announcement photo with Kamala and a link to register to vote. It's pretty clear. None of these people were coming out excitedly or at all for Joe Biden.

So this is fine. I wonder if Chapel Roan will come to the White House now. We'll see. She said there's a little bit more work to be done there before you can get Chapel Roan, but I think we're on the road to Roan. Another outside of the popular people who are leading culture right now and making it cool to support Kamala, but it's not just the culture folks and the cool kids. It was also this off-the-record Zoom that got put together within minutes of Kamala being announced that

It came from the group Win With Black Women, and they ended up getting up to 40,000 people on a Zoom call that lasted about four hours. Within this call, they raised $1.5 million, and that's from people on the call alone, and the call was entirely Black women. So reported attendees per journalist Phil Lewis included...

Reps Joyce Beattie, Maxine Waters, Jasmine Crockett. Other notable attendees were D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Maryland Senate hopeful Angela Alsobrooks, who was our down-ballot girly of the week.

Bernice King, Jennifer Lewis, Black Voters Matter co-founder Latasha Brown, a.k.a. sorority president Danette Anthony Reed, the National Council of Negro Women's President Siobhan Arlene Bradley, Star Jones. Star Jones is back on the scene. Love to see her back. And Sirius XM host Recy Colbert, Angela Rye, Zeta Phi Beta sorority president Dr. Stacey N.C. Grant and more. And if you don't know those names, go back.

Write them down. Look them up. These are going to be your leaders from now until the election and beyond. We are going to be introduced to so many Black women of power that we didn't previously know because they weren't always included and prioritized on those MSNBC interviews or wherever else they quote people. And these folks are the ones who put together a Zoom that reached 40,000.

40,000 black women last night. And you can bet that each one of those people is going to mobilize. Oh yeah, they're mobilized. More than three people. That's my guess. That's a projection I've made based on nothing. But if you can get 40,000 people on a Zoom on a Sunday afternoon for four hours- Within a couple minutes. I think that you can move people. So that is what

Donald Trump is up against and he is scared. He has already been cagey about whether he's going to take part in the debate. He already said he wants to move it from ABC News. He says it's unfair. He didn't even address her in his statements. He basically was just like Joe Biden couldn't handle it. He dropped out. He's so I bet he didn't even get COVID. Do you know why? Do you know why he won't address her?

Because he'd have to recognize that they are peers. They are on the same platform. They're on the same level. And that's not something that Donald Trump is willing to do. And I think that's going to be his Achilles heel in this election is never being able to accept that.

That's going to be his mail-in voting of 2024 because they are doing mail-in voting. They're pushing for it this year. So that could be his thing. Of course they are. So Stephen Miller went on Fox News and said it's unfair that Democrats switched out the candidate last minute. Donald Trump says that it's unfair that they had a whole convention against Joe Biden and they didn't.

It's like you could have addressed this. There was this very loud chorus of people saying that Joe Biden might drop out and the obvious person for it to be was Kamala Harris. And they didn't spend any time addressing that. Probably they thought that he's like Biden's like them and would never drop out. Trump doesn't want to learn a new script. He likes the script.

That's why his fucking speech that night was 90 minutes, which is unheard of. For those listening, the average political acceptance speech is 17 to 33 minutes, 17 really being like kind of your sweet spot if you could get it good.

an hour and a half of rambling. And it's because he likes his script. He doesn't want to learn a new show. He likes the him versus Joe Biden show. He likes Hannibal Lecter and battery-operated sharks. Stupid jokes. Yeah. No, I mean, we need to find out where Kamala Harris stands on Hannibal Lecter. That's what my mission is. We do. Stephen Miller also complained that she wants to get rid of plastic straws. So that's the best they have of

They have against her. They're so old. They're so old in their talking points. Yeah, and Donald Trump also won't commit J.D. Vance to debating the new vice presidential nominee posted about that already. Can you imagine Josh Shapiro with J.D. Vance? Or any of them. Oh, that would be. Any of them. Andy Beshear with J.D. Vance, like an actual Appalachian fella who like made good and cares about working people. That would be fun.

debating Bakey McOhio over there? That's very satisfying to think about. Ohio's Skibbity versus the great governor of Kentucky. It'd be great. Well, we will know soon enough who this magical vice presidential candidate is. You can bet that VP Vic is going to be the closest thing to a moderate white male as they can possibly find.

And I would argue that there are really three main considerations when it comes to making a VP pick in general. And those things are optics, experience, and how it affects the balance of power elsewhere in government. So the first being optics.

You want to pick someone who will balance the vibe. It's not about the perfect person per se. It's about picking someone who will balance the vibe and potentially the policy opinions or weaknesses of the person at the top of the ticket. The goal is to supplement their weaknesses, obviously. So at worst, you're picking a non-entity like Tim Kaine, who is neither going to add nor subtract.

And at best, you want an additive figure who will reassure a weaker constituency that is on the fence with the presidential nominee. So an example of this would be like Biden being the elder statesman to Obama, who at the time had a relatively inexperienced resume for president. And that was one of the criticisms of him amidst all of his, you know, the energy behind him. And to speak to that, the second thing is experience.

No matter how popular or charismatic someone is, it is not good to pick a total ingenue or someone who is perceived as too green and who hasn't been properly vetted over time like Sarah Palin. J.D. Vance, for example, an argument can be made that he was a pick like this. He's only popular because he is a popular author and a venture capitalist, but politically he's only been in the Senate for a year and a half and he is 39 years old.

And the last thing is the balance of power. So how will removing that vice presidential pick from their current position or office affect other political considerations? Will that person leaving their role lose Democrats a seat somewhere or force them into an election or an appointment that will not be beneficial? Or will they lose a governorship that could be a detriment to their goals overall? Sammy, kick us off with the first one. Who's our first idea here?

So our first option, and these are not really in any particular order of likelihood or anything, just giving you them straight. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, his term is ending this year. He can't run again. As a quick aside, there's a very important governor's race taking place in North Carolina where Democrat Josh Stein is facing the Republican Mark Robinson, who once said that some people need killin'. Get mad at me if you want to. Some folks need killin'.

So North Carolina, get out. Don't vote for that guy. Vote for Joshua Stein.

Roy Cooper is the reason he's, I would say is a good option is he's an older white man. North Carolina is an important state in the race. Overall. He has, he's perceived as being, having experience. I think he's pretty well liked and he and Kamala Harris have actually been campaigning together this election cycle because, because it's an important race. So it seems that they have at least, you know, enough chemistry together that they could form a good ticket. Um,

He's also in a good place career-wise to be VP. And in terms of the balance of powers, there would be no loss for him really taking this position. Is he the most galvanizing out of the options? I don't think so. But he, you know, I think he's the closest to like your Tim Kaine option, but still a good, solid candidate. He kind of looks like Joe Biden with the bold glamour filter on though. And I wonder if it might be too close.

a visual. For me, it feels like Barack Obama, Joe Biden. Yeah. And he looks like Joe Biden. He looks like a young Joe Biden. Well, we'll see. So it could be him. I think he would be one good pick among many. My dream pick is to shoot for the moon and fall amongst the stars with Mark Kelly, the astronaut from Arizona.

He's got high risk factor. He's a freaking astronaut, which like, I don't care who you are. Everybody thinks that's cool. Everybody thinks that's cool. And like a major accomplishment is also a gun safety advocate after his wife, Gabby Giffords, the former representative from Arizona was shot.

She has endorsed Kamala and they come from a very purple border state. So they can speak to immigration. And I really think that Mark Kelly could open up the sunbelt. He's won two elections in Arizona. If you were to be the vice president, Arizona governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat would appoint a replacement. But the tricky part is that person would need to run in a special election in 2026 and could potentially upset the Senate margins.

If he stays in his role, his term won't be over until 2029. So while there would be two years before that election, it seems to me like it might be kind of a bad idea to give up a Senate seat early unless it's absolutely necessary. And we're totally sure that Arizona would pick another Democratic senator in that special election. You just don't know what will happen. So why would you put your seat up early? I think if not for that, he would be the pick. Yeah. And he still might be. They might roll the dice on it.

They might, they might. I think there's a lot of factors to consider and ultimately it's going to come with the advisement of multiple people and who she wants to run with, I imagine. Yep.

The next one is a friend of the pod, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. You should go back and listen to my interview with him from two weeks ago that we did while we were on our book tour. Shapiro is a star governor in a swing state, a very important state. They really need Pennsylvania. He's highly pragmatic. You'll hear this in the episode. And a real public servant, has a lot of experience. He's, I think, like early 50s.

He will definitely help with that Rust Belt demo that is most harmed by Biden dropping out. Also, in terms of succession, his lieutenant governor is Austin Davis, who was also very well liked and the first black lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania. Now, there is one outstanding point that people have been discussing, which is that he is Jewish.

And I think there's a lot of, we're getting the, are we ready for a Jewish candidate? Do you want to risk it? Similar to what you're getting. Are we, well, is America ready to elect a black woman? And I feel that, yes, you're taking a risk on just hyper activating white supremacists and really enraging them. But I also feel that the majority of the country

is not a racist, hateful bigot against Jews or Black people or anyone, really. I think that you have a better narrative. I do think there are people who will be like, he's too pro-Israel or she needs to

call for a ceasefire. Maybe they will ultimately decide that him being on the ticket will come along with calling for a ceasefire. I have many thoughts about how the Gaza situation must have gone down while Biden was dealing with all of this and maybe why things resulted as they did. But with him, I feel that there's a potential for a narrative of, you know, you have Black people and Jewish people as poor bases of the Democratic Party over several decades.

always on the forefront of civil rights historically. And there have been unions, I don't mean literally like actual unions. I mean, there's been a lot of unity amongst those communities, which has now been fractured in the past year, especially. And

And there's something very powerful, I think, about directly confronting that and unifying two groups that have been targeted by white supremacists and saying, we are standing up this ticket because this is what America is about. It is about coming together despite our differences and working together for all of our interests. So if they can thread that needle, I think that it's a little risky because of the things we are worried about, but

Just go for it. That's what I think. I think so. And the thing I like about Josh Shapiro, and I'm sure maybe the other people do too, but I know he leads with this. He has like a really good home life. And I think that kind of stability must be very helpful during a stressful campaign. Like he loves his wife. He loves his family. They love him. Like, you know, Philadelphia is not too far from D.C. for him to be able to like go

you know, make that dream come true, do that work without necessarily losing his connection to where he's from and everything he cares about so close in Philadelphia. So I think that that, I think they should consider your home life. If you'll be stable enough to run for this, because this is really, really, really difficult. And I'm sure they all...

love their families. But I just think Josh Shapiro leads with that as part of his personality. He's like a wife guy. I like that about him. He is a wife guy. And so is Doug Emhoff. Yes. Imagine the meme ability of the friendship between those two people. Besties. Besties.

And the last one here that we know is a very likely frontrunner is Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. He's a moderate Dem. He won the governorship in a very red state two times. He's 46-year-old, so pretty young, and one of the country's youngest governors.

He's made a great case against J.D. Vance on Morning Joe, and he really plays against the type of Democrats reinforcing this big tent vibe and not making it seem like all Democrats are like coastal elite academic boss.

I think he also stands up Appalachia in a much more positive and authentic way than J.D. Vance could ever hope to. And he is loved by the unions, loved by the working people, but really knows how to work across the aisle with complicated Republican candidates and constituencies and has earned their trust. And I think, again, what we're looking for is that unity. That is like the key word here. Who's going to unify the nation?

Be unlikely that Kentucky elects another Democratic governor, though. The lieutenant governor is super well-liked, but that's the risk with Beshear. Now, some people I could tell you it won't be. Pete Buttigieg, please stop saying this. The man is he wants to play with his airplanes and trains and finish his next four years. And he needs to. He's holding all of the bridges, tunnels and water in his hands. He is the architect of and executor for Beshear.

the Infrastructure Act. So he's not going anywhere. If you want to get your luggage at the airport, keep Pete where he is. Yes. He's making them pay for your lost luggage. He is. And he's very happy where he is. He's going to be president someday, just not today. I think we need to divest. We need politicians to divest from power maxing. It's not about getting the position with the most honor.

They need to be guided to find things that they are good and effective at. And if that role brings them into higher roles, then great. But it's not about like, how do I get to the presidency first? And I think that that is one of the things that is so important.

but also something we can learn about from Kamala Harris. Yes. Because let's say people are like, oh, she had no delegates in the 2020 primary. Yeah, because she dropped before. She had the good sense to drop before she could embarrass herself. Right. Yes. That's called smart. Gretchen Whitmer is not going to happen. Love her to death, but she's very happy where she is and going to stay where she is. She could also be president one day. She could also be president one day. And she's the co-chair of the campaign now. Yes. And the one that I really want to point out is Michelle Obama because she's

Barack Obama has said many times three things are certain, death, taxes, Michelle not running for office. And it actually makes her really uncomfortable when people say, oh, I wish it was Michelle Obama, because she doesn't want to disappoint the public or make it seem like she's not answering the call or that the –

Obama family as they answering the call, those eight years she served as first lady and did all of the work that she did and the work she continues to do is incredibly important. And she does not believe that her best use of time and service is to be the president.

It took too much from the family. She doesn't want to do it. And it actually, she doesn't find it flattering when people do the Obama 2024, Michelle, we need you stuff. She's like, I get to be me too. So don't ask Michelle Obama to run. Right. Michelle, be like Michelle Obama and stop power maxing.

Recognize that you're good at multiple things and you can serve in many ways and that also she has already served. I don't think people really understand how much being the first lady – I mean, I don't want to diminish what people understand. But being the first lady is – you are employed –

Because your husband is like, you have a more than a full-time job. You could argue it's very traumatic to have these things, to have these things said about you. And she was treated terribly. Terribly. Please stop with Michelle Obama. Leave Michelle alone. Leave Michelle alone. Leave Britney alone. Stop asking her to do things and let her decide what she wants to do. That's right. That's right. We don't ask labor of Black women who don't offer it, right? We're learning so many things. Right.

And then no one without substantial experience. So you're not going to see AOC or Maxwell Frost. I know there was a thought Gen Z had made a couple of comments in a couple of different articles that I've seen different Gen Z creators who were like, I think this is their opportunity to put somebody from Gen Z and the vice president's ticket. One, you're not old enough. Many of you. Two,

That job is almost harder than the president job in the way that you are just a workhorse. You get all the jobs that are difficult, that aren't the flashy ones, and you have to have a constituency and you also have to have built relationships to be able to work across the aisle and internationally. It's a super big stage.

It's not something you get your phone taken away. Yeah, they're not going to get your phone taken away. It's very difficult to date. I don't think we should expect that they're picking an ideological, an idealist, like candidate, like someone who is going to be like a multiracial, multi-faith, gender nonconforming person.

of a candidate is not going to emerge between now and then for Kamala Harris. And I don't think it needs to. I think we look at the president and the vice president and we have sort of like a misunderstanding of what their day-to-day functions are because we sort of project on them everything we want it to be. And there will be lots of room for all kinds of diversity in the cabinet, in the administration and in the work we do and in the down ballot we get elected and the people we inspire to run an

And then the people that they mentor up through the ranks that already exist, but definitely don't expect them to put like, I don't know, Chapel Rome. Maxwell Frost. Maxwell Frost. No, it's, yeah, no. It won't be a celebrity either. Some people have said a celebrity. It won't be a celebrity either. And it would be irresponsible for it to be. She doesn't need it to be. She is the celebrity. She is that girl. She is brat. Right. We want politicians who are just competent and stabilizing and who build a coalition.

So how are we going to position her? What messages should her campaign lean into? So I think the most obvious is prosecutor versus felon. We have protector of your rights versus a taker of your rights. The future versus the past. Young and sprightly and inspiring versus old and musty Mar-a-Lago rug. You have democracy versus...

autocracy and Project 2025. Articulate versus rambling. Yeah. Yeah. And also you have direction. As much as the Republicans have Project 2025, which in a future episode, I really think we should talk about, is the Heritage Foundation quite as powerful as we think they are? Or are we giving them more power? I think by exposing their plan, they've been sort of like written off and knocked down. I think they've lost a ton of power and we're going to keep talking about it.

But their plan is sort of like Project 2025. Trump's like, no, it's Agenda 47. Who's going to be in the cabinet? They don't know. They're going to put loyalists in who don't know how to run the government. It's going to be, you know, it's ripe for a coup, truly, if you're going to have that weak a government. What I think we should do if we're going to do an episode is examining the real model. I know we've said Iran for like a real religious, serious religious autocracy, but I think the real model is closer to Hungary, where they have built sort of a

proto sheen of a democracy. And nobody likes them. You see them at NATO summit. They're ostracized. They don't have real power in the room. And they have so fewer people. We're talking about Hungary has a couple million, not 330 million in the land mass that the United States has. That shit ain't going to fly here. And for America to fall from what we are to what that is, that's much more significant. So we can talk about what that looks like, what that type of society looks like.

And, you know, we can explore the different degrees of risk involved in voting for Republican, you know, representatives and senators. I think it's such a good chance.

We've seen the mega agenda and the right wing extremists get destroyed at the ballot box, down ballot in their congressional races, at the school board level. Even people tasted extremism and realized that that was a very, very bitter, bad taste. They didn't want that. Even if you are Republican, they didn't want that. And I think this is like sort of the death rattle. My mom was a hospice nurse, used to call it the death rattle. There's like a lot of enthusiasm and then it goes away.

I think this is a death rattle more than a rally cry coming from the MAGA world to the point that even with the assassination attempt on Dear Leader's life, that news cycle lasted like two or three days. But even his people thought that it could be staged or that it was faked because this is a person who stages and fakes everything. And when it came down to it, nobody ran because they thought it was part of the show. Nobody is like calling for his medical records or like on a vigilante quest to

Because it was part of the show. And so I think the show we've seen behind the curtain now, and I think Republicans and conservatives and even people I know who are center moderate, right, are like, I'm sick of being embarrassed and I'm sick of losing. And they they're looking to sort of go back to that John McCain Republican. Right. If that's what it is. You're right. People have seen enough. They want normalcy and they want stability.

And I think that Kamala Harris, I'm assuming, yes, she will.

And I think if you love Trump, you should vote for Kamala. It's the safest place to keep Trump is in Mar-a-Lago and far, far away from the clutches of J.D. Vance and the technocracy that wants to take over and will immediately burn that Trojan horse down once they get in the castle. Shall we close out with an Americant? You have one for us. Here's my Americant. And it is this. If you're not with us, shut the fuck up.

I don't normally like speak that. I mean, I just mean it in this way. I don't think that you have to support Kamala Harris if you want to. You don't got to go knock on doors for her, do mailers. You don't got to donate. You don't have to do anything. You can literally sit home and just ignore the rising tide of Christian nationalism and Trumpism that was headed our way before Sunday and everything that came in the last 24 hours.

but you do have to have enough common courtesy to just shut up then. If you don't like her and you don't want to participate in this, then start organizing for what you're going to do in 2028, what you're going to do down ballot, where are you going to go in the midterm election of two years from now? If she's not far enough left for you,

Join up with the Working Families Party. Join up with other leftists in the Libertarian Party. Start working on your structure. But to attack her at this point and risk the fact that we don't defeat Trump, I think doesn't serve anybody who is hoping for a more progressive future.

And the divisions that we have faced over the last couple of years are being healed. I mean, you've got everyone from Nikki Haley's voter pack to the ultra progressive squad and practically everyone in between endorsing Kamala because they know at the end of the day, we have one chance to make sure we have another chance.

Akamala Victory ensures more free and fair elections. Akamala Victory puts a nail in the coffin of the horrible DEI candidates can't win lies. Akamala Victory with the landslide she's going to bring in votes and support breaks once and for all the glass ceiling and takes the boot of patriarchy off the neck of women everywhere. We can do this, but it will take all of us.

And like Jasmine Crockett said last night on MSNBC, the only candidate I'm out here to break my back for is Kamala Harris. If you're thinking about putting anyone else in or bringing in grievance as to why she's not perfect, have fun with that somewhere else.

Totally. I think her candidacy is so powerful right now, specifically. You have, you know, just think about it from the perspective of like karma. Donald Trump came up riding this wave of white grievance as a result of Obama's administration, largely. Since Donald Trump was elected, it has now been Black Americans who have repeatedly saved us from violence.

them grabbing more power, the 2020 election, the Georgia Senate, the prosecutions of Donald Trump by Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, Bonnie Willis. It would be deeply karmic for Kamala to be the one to put the final nail in this white supremacist coffin that has really dragged down our democratic history and prevented it from reaching its fullest. So that's what I think is maybe what we can do here and building the coalition, building

No one's perfect, but this is a winning coalition. Well, and I'll tell you what, if you if you have to say something, I'm going to give you the secrets to where your dissent can be heard from now until the convention. It's it's line up lockstep. We're behind our candidate because we are playing defense against the Republicans who are, you know, all sort of like lined up.

properly. So we're playing strong defense from now to the election. You'll have an opportunity at the DNC to influence uncommitted delegates. Find out in your state what delegates are uncommitted. Call them up. Tell them what kind of policies you want to see her discuss at the DNC. That is a power position you can do. That's something more you can do than being on social media. Find out your uncommitted delegates. Tell them your grievances. Tell them, bring them to DNC for you. From now until the election, we stay steady and committed and unified just like France did.

From November 6th to January 19th, we're in sort of a weird area, right? We have a president-elect, but Joe Biden's still holding down office, and we know that Trump's going to say, the election was stolen, and we're going to subvert and do all this crazy stuff. That's also not a great time to attack Kamala Harris, but you could start to organize locally with your down-ballot candidates, with your Democratic Party, with your groups that you kiki with and say, hey, we would really love to see in her first 100 days,

talk about this policy about the environment, that policy about abortion, this policy about that. And then once she is inaugurated,

And she does the walk down Pennsylvania Avenue and she gets safely locked away in the West Wing. You could start to criticize her all the hell you want. And we will, too, because now she's the candidate. She's been inaugurated. She's holding the office. Once it is safe and the coast is clear, that is the time that we can be hypercritical of her and hold her to account for the decisions she's making, not just the decisions that she was the vice president that Joe made.

Yeah, let's be fairly critical. I think we should cover her. You know, I think that there's going to be a lot of discussion around covering her and the criticism that what is really tinged with sexism and racism versus like what is really...

a normal criticism that we would level against any male, white male politician. So I think that that's going to be, you know, an ongoing conversation, but that is a good problem to have relative to some of the other problems we could have. Perfect. And that's, and that's the compromise we're making. We're going to give you all the opportunities to air your grievances, to get your voice heard, to get priorities listed, but those are the ways that you can do it. And in the meanwhile, if you don't have anything nice to say,

save it for January 20th. Yes. That's the deal. That's all we'll do. All you got to do, you know what? If you don't like this candidate and you've already decided you're not going to vote, just opt out. Go reflect. Don't vote. Don't vote. That's okay. Take the day off. If you've already decided, take the day off. But actively trying to sabotage other people's enthusiasm or vote is something that I just hope we can get people to have the courtesy to say, it's not for me, but I'm not going to try to sabotage anybody else's vote.

Until next time, I'm Vita Speer. I'm Sammy Sage. And this is American Fever Dream. American Fever Dream is produced and edited by Samantha Gatzik. Social media by Candice Monega and Bridget Schwartz. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Betches News and follow me, Sammy Sage, at Sammy and V at Under the Desk News. And of course, send us your emails to AmericanFeverDream at Betches.com. Betches.