Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign smashed all kinds of records
in the first 48 hours, and the momentum—and record-breaking—hasn’t flagged since. The grassroots is energized. Small donors are swarming to her. Big donors are flocking to her and the whole tenor of this fight to save our democracy has been infused with hope and enthusiasm and plain-old fun
.
The money continues to pour in—more than $130 million
by mid-week primarily from small donors. That more than doubled
the $96 million cash on hand the Biden-Harris campaign had at the end of June.
Where some of that money is coming from is even fun—all those campaign Zoom calls, each of which has broken previous participant and money records. It started with Win with Black Women
on Sunday, with 44,000 participants and $1.6 million raised. Then on Monday, Win With Black Men
built on that with over 40,000 participants, netting about $1.3 million.
On Thursday night, “White Women: Answer the Call” literally broke Zoom
with 164,000
participants handing over more than $2 million in just an hour. Not to be outdone, White Dudes for Harris
, who “aren’t going to sit around and let the MAGA crowd bully other white guys into voting for a hateful and divisive ideology” will have their call next Monday.
Since Sunday, more than 100,000 people
have signed up to volunteer for the Harris campaign, and more than 2,000 people applied for campaign jobs by Wednesday. That includes 6,600 new sign-ups in Florida
, 3,000 in Michigan
, 4,000 in Pennsylvania
, more than 1,300 in Arizona
, and more than 1,000 in Wisconsin
, ready to start knocking on doors this weekend.
Harris got three more big endorsements, from Democratic congressional leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer
on Tuesday, and the week was capped off by the most exciting endorsement (after President Joe Biden’s) from former president and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama.
More national labor groups
pledged their support to Harris, including “educators, construction workers, health care professionals, farmworkers, postal workers, service and public employees, as well as workers in communications, hospitality, nursing, transportation, utility and manufacturing,” a campaign press release said.
And finally, she still doesn’t have any criminal convictions.
Rep. Ronny Jackson, the former White House doctor for Donald Trump, is spitting mad
about what FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress
on Wednesday about the July 13 attempt on Donald Trump’s life. Wray said that it’s not clear yet “whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that … hit [Trump’s] ear.”
That’s blasphemy in Trump world. So Jackson is out to refute it. In a letter
posted on Trump’s Truth Social site, Jackson insisted, “There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet. Congress should correct the record as confirmed by both the hospital and myself. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”
In fact, the hospital has not confirmed any such thing.
The hospital has released very little information about the injury, the treatment, or Trump’s condition. That’s led commentators
like Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and the chief medical correspondent for CNN, to call for a “full public assessment of Trump’s injuries,” saying it “is necessary, for both the former president’s own health and the clarity it can provide for voters about the recovery of the man who could become president of the United States once again.”
The only medical information the Trump campaign has released comes from the disgraced Jackson
, who was demoted
by the Navy after a Defense Department report found he drank on the job, among other misbehavior. Jackson was not Trump’s attending physician immediately following the shooting. Furthermore, he reportedly no longer has a valid medical license
and is certified only to provide emergency treatment or to practice on military bases.
The lack of information around Trump’s injury is troubling. In what universe is a presidential candidate shot and the hospital doesn’t make a statement about the treatment? More information should be public knowledge by now.
It also shouldn’t matter if Trump was injured by glass or shrapnel. It doesn’t change the fact that he survived an assassination attempt—and should be cooperating with the investigation to find out all the answers.
Instead, he’s lashing out
against Wray. “No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel,” Trump posted Thursday on Truth Social. “The hospital called it a ‘bullet wound to the ear,’ and that is what it was. No wonder the once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!”
Trump needs to bolster the mythology that he, in his words
, “took a bullet for democracy.” It wasn’t enough to have survived a horrendous assassination attempt. The MAGA hagiography
demands more drama, that he be “shot”—a whole convention was centered on that
.
After nearly a near year of careful planning, organizers of the Democratic National Convention
are in a mad dash to accommodate a new nominee, a re-crafted program, and a highly compressed deadline to pull everything off as though this was the plan all along.
With President Joe Biden
now out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris
pursuing the party’s nomination, a dramatic role reversal for the two is likely to play out before a nationally televised audience when around 5,000 delegates, 12,000 volunteers, and 15,000 media members gather for four days in Chicago starting Aug. 19.
Harris is banking on introducing her vice presidential pick to the country and standing at center stage to accept her party’s nomination. Biden—who until mere days ago thought he’d be the one getting the nod—will have a more peripheral and ceremonial role akin to the treatment of second-term presidents set to leave office.
He will still give a speech and have his achievements feted, but the whole thing will require a delicate political balance between the president and his No. 2.
“If it’s a Biden-Harris reelection convention, it’s all about doubling down on the great accomplishment. The challenge, obviously, will be how to sort of bank that, but also talk about the future,” said William M. Daley, a former Obama White House chief of staff whose father and brother were Chicago mayors.
There have occasionally been tensions, or at least struggles with political messaging and tone, as vice presidents campaign to succeed a president—like in 2000, when Bill Clinton was in office and Al Gore was seeking the White House. Clinton left the convention after offering a triumphant review of his accomplishments on the first day, but prominent party leaders urged him to more definitively cede the spotlight to his vice president going forward, citing the Monica Lewinsky scandal that prompted the president’s impeachment.
Then-Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who would be the Democratic nominee himself four years later, said of Clinton: “We may need to get the Jaws of Life to pry him free from the thing — but we’ve got to pry him free.”
As for Biden’s situation this year, “there are people in the party that would have rather seen something different happen. The question is can this be subsumed to an overarching unity message,” said Julia Azari, a political science professor at Marquette University who is co-authoring a book on the vice presidency and political parties.
A convention helmed by Harris would nonetheless make history as Democrats become the first major party to nominate a woman of color for president
.
“It lights a fire under national Democrats. It’s an added level of history,” said Christian Perry, political director for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. He added that Harris would break more barriers in a city that produced a series of history-making Black Democrats, from the Rev. Jesse Jackson to former President Barack Obama.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a Wisconsin rally—her first as the presidential nominee—on Tuesday.
“I think it’ll be a celebratory mood,” said Bruce Thompson, a member of the convention rules committee. “There’s been way too much gallows humor in the Democratic Party over the last month. And now we have this confidence and this energy.”
Like Biden, Harris could be expected to use the convention to promote the administration’s policy accomplishments, while decrying Republican President Donald Trump
as a threat to democracy
.
But other aspects of the campaign are shifting profoundly—from fundraising and travel schedules to how Harris targets key states and the personal advisers closest to her. The vice president’s “Harris for President” logo in blue and red does feature lettering similar to the original Biden-Harris reelection insignia, at least.
The convention’s background music could also reflect a fresher vibe.
In the first appearances of her nascent 2024 presidential campaign, Harris’ soundtrack has featured Beyoncé’s hit “Freedom.” Biden’s events leaned more toward working-class-themed ballads by the likes of Bruce Springsteen.
The Chicago convention will have different themes each night, such as economic growth or national diversity. In addition to Biden, there will be addresses from White House alums Barack and Michelle Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Before Biden bowed out of the race, he and his family gathered at Camp David to pose for famed photographer Annie Leibovitz for photos to be used at the convention. They’ll still be used—but likely in a more retrospective way.
For all the upheaval to the presidential race, organizers say actual convention logistics won’t change all that much—highlighting how the quadrennial gatherings are as much about a party partying as they are about fortifying candidates.
“Our mission remains the same,” said convention chair Minyon Moore.
Party staff began occupying the United Center, normally home to the NBA’s Bulls and the NHL’s Blackhawks, on June 25. Construction to remake the arena to better meet the convention’s needs has been underway for more than a month, with nearly as long still to go. The convention logo still reads “CHICAGO” over the city’s signature four-star insignia and “DNC 2024.” The slogan remains: “Our future is created here.”
“There’s not a lot in the actual hall that has to move around because you’re taking one out and putting the other in. It’s all somewhat neutral,” Daley said. “The stage and all that, is all set, if it’s Biden or it’s Harris or who walks out.”
Also unaltered are plans for widespread demonstrations protesting the Biden administration’s strong support for Israel in its war with Hamas
.
Azari said Democrats may be hoping to re-create the last time the Democrats held a Chicago convention in 1996, when there were no significant protests, the party was mostly unified behind Clinton and the lasting image was of Hillary Clinton and others dancing the Macarena.
“The ‘96 convention is what they’re aiming for,” Azair said, “where the biggest story is gonna be people dancing badly.”
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance responded to his previous claim
on Fox News that Democrats are “a bunch of childless cat ladies” by doubling down. “Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment,” Vance told Megyn Kelly on her SiriusXM show on Friday. But then he continued:
“I’ve got nothing against cats. I’ve got nothing against dogs. I’ve got one dog at home and I love them. Meghan. But look, this is not, people are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said and the substance of what I said. Meghan, I’m sorry. It’s true. It is true that we become anti-family. It is true that the left has become anti-child. “
