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Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman break down how Kamala Harris was chosen and how she stacks up against Donald Trump. They shift to the Republican response which could be categorized as "panic." Plus: who will be Harris's running mate and how long will it take for Trump to blame J.D. Vance for their poor polling numbers?
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I am the co-host of The Muckrake Podcast, joined by Jared Yates Sexton as well, as always, and we're doing our show on Tuesday.
Thank you all for being here.
A packed show, lots of things to talk about.
Biden stepping aside, Kamala Harris being embraced.
We have to deal with how the Republicans are going to now deal with all of this, plus J.D.
Vance's Trump speech, VP discussion.
It is chock full of things to discuss, and thank goodness that we had Jared Yates-Sexson here with me to help me figure out and coalesce what is going to happen.
Jared?
Back in studio, baby!
No more talking on the phone in the car.
Ready to go.
Hello.
Yes.
You know what?
I know your points today are going to be that much better because... They're going to be so much more cogent and pertinent.
But I will say, by the way, for anybody who didn't listen to it, we did an emergency podcast on Sunday, which is technically yesterday because we record this on a Monday.
Nick, the entire political world has shifted on its axis.
Like, even since you and I talked yesterday to do that emergency podcast, everything has moved.
Like, what an incredible moment.
Like, we talked about, like, what 2024 was going to be like.
We predicted a good deal of what has happened, but it is still so strange to see what it is metamorphosizing into.
You know, and it's good in a good way, right?
Because things are good right now.
Things are good right now.
Yes.
I mean, it could be conceived that I'm sure there are scary movies that use the word metamorphosis to make us feel that way.
But I'm a little bit surprised that I am happier that this is positive and we've gotten some good vibes out of this.
I think part of the thing was I was convinced that there was going to be more of a battle for who was going to become The nominee, even if Biden said, I would like Kamala to be it, you know, I thought, you know, people might step up there and try and take advantage of the chaos of the situation.
It turns out though that the Democratic Party, you know, they kind of stick together a little bit.
No, they never stick together.
That is not even close to being a true characteristic of the Democratic Party.
They're allergic to sticking together.
Come on, you have to be pretty darn ruthless to try and step up there and say, F this, I'm going to be the one.
I don't think Kamala can win and I'm a Democrat.
Like, I don't think anyone that's, you know, that's a tough one.
So I have a quick hypothetical for you.
Are you ready for this?
Yeah.
You ready?
Because what you just said very well could have happened.
And by the way, we'll get more in depth about Biden, Harris, Trump, all of it.
Nick, if this would have been taken care of sooner, it would be a different story.
Okay.
It is getting so close to the convention that it became out of necessity.
And on top of that, one of the things that has happened in the past few days is that behind the scenes, the people around Kamala Harris, the people behind Joe Biden, and the people around Barack Obama, and everyone's making hay out of it.
They're like, why hasn't Obama endorsed her yet?
You know why he hasn't endorsed her yet.
They're going to have a big giant event where he wraps her in his arms.
And basically makes her the heir apparent to his legacy.
That's coming.
So all of this got orchestrated, put together.
It's absolutely incredible how much the gravity has changed.
And Nick, and by the way, everybody, go to patreon.com slash muckrakepodcast, subscribe, support the show.
We're growing.
Are we not, Nick?
We are growing by leaps and bounds.
It's really crazy as we're moving into the election season.
It turns out people enjoy actual intelligent analysis that doesn't do all the conventional stuff and kind of tells you what's going to happen in a couple of days or a couple of weeks.
Go over to patreon.com slash mccraigpodcast.
You get the weekender, you join the community, you support us, keep us advert editorially independent.
Nick, we got to talk about Joe Biden stepping aside.
We had talked about how the momentum was moving back and forth between Biden staying and Biden getting out of the race.
What eventually happened here was that Biden was given a bunch of different, how do we put this, pieces of reality.
Is what happened.
Basically, everyone in his campaign with any sort of an understanding of polls came to him and said, there's absolutely no way you can win at this point.
Everybody who is involved in fundraising went to him and said, sir, you're not going to raise any more money.
Nancy Pelosi gave him the bad news.
Chuck Schumer gave him the bad news.
And I will say, to his credit, Joe Biden did the right thing and stepped aside.
And we'll talk about the historical implications of this.
We'll talk about, you know, exactly how this kind of came to be.
But I will say this, Nick.
It is incredible today, as we record this, Does it not feel like this big giant weight has been lifted off of us?
It's like there was a blockage within the Democratic Party, and it wasn't just Biden, it's Schumer, Pelosi, it's the leadership that has been there forever and has held on to power.
It feels like something is shifting, that attention was building and building and building, and something had to give.
And the fact that it has given Now gives this party a new lease on life.
It doesn't mean that they're going to do well with it.
It doesn't mean that they're going to succeed with it.
But the party does have a new lease on life right now.
For sure.
Well, your proverbial or metaphorical or probably actually real shower that you were going to have to take after voting.
I don't have to take that shower anymore.
No, I mean, I would recommend taking showers anyway.
Well, I like showers.
I like showers.
You need to have both hands on the tile head down water going for 20 minutes while the You don't need to do that anymore.
That's huge.
That is the weight, right?
Because we both understood that he wasn't going to be able to campaign as well as what we thought he was going to need to do to win.
So that's out of the way for sure.
I do find it interesting that you used the phrase pieces of reality to help him figure this out.
I would have probably called it a version of a wrestling hold.
You know the one where you kind of grab a couple of fingers and you twist and then the arm gets whatever?
Maybe one of those jabs with the fingertips to the neck, you know?
That was what was happening and it was going to slowly get worse and worse for him as he would get strangled over days if he didn't step down, right?
I think there was going to be a coordinated campaign slowly but surely over until he finally did capitulate because everybody else seemed to understand what it took, you know, a little long for Biden to discover.
I want to put some of this into context.
I've had a lot of time to think about what has happened here and a lot of time to think about Biden historically, and I want to make two points that work together, and this is part of what happens with the American presidency.
Every president that we have had and we will ever have is a fascinating individual who has been driven to the highest point of power.
You don't just do that without certain needs and psychological complexion.
Like, to become the President of the United States of America, you have to have so many strange things going on with you to even want that job.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, it's really, really incredible.
Joe Biden's main characteristics as a politician and as a person are as follows.
An aggrievement and resentment that people underestimate him.
That they don't think he's very smart.
They've always thought that he wasn't very smart.
He wasn't very capable.
He wanted to prove them wrong, right?
Nobody thought he was going to become president of the United States of America, including Barack Obama, the president that he served under as vice president.
That is one of his main characteristics.
The second is a sense of duty.
Joe Biden believes in the system for good and for bad.
You know, ill and for gain.
There's all of that.
There's also a third characteristic in all of this, and it is hubris.
It has been there throughout.
He was the one guy who could beat Donald Trump, Nick.
He was the one guy who could return America back to where it was and preserve America's soul.
That means that when you got to 2024, he couldn't leave.
He's the indispensable man in the arena.
And what happens?
He's told, you have to get out?
Well, you know, screw you, pal.
I don't have to get out.
I'm the president.
Everybody underestimates me.
On top of that, he believes in the system.
He wanted to see the job done.
All these different things came together, I think, to call balls and strikes, Nick.
You have to say that Joe Biden showed tremendous hubris in this situation.
But when push came to shove, and when it really, really got down to it, he made the right decision, not just for the party, but for the country itself.
And that's what they have to frame this as, because they're going to be fending off all sorts of 25th Amendment accusations from the Republicans.
I brought this up too, right?
And you and I both were probably so worried about how he appeared after the debate that it was like, how is this guy running the country day to day?
Anyway, I'm sure you can finish out the last few months.
Did you see what his brother said about this whole thing?
No, I actually didn't.
Frother came out and basically said that health was a significant factor in his decision.
He had COVID, whatever, but he also seemed to characterize it a bit as like, you know, living out the end of his life and more comfortably, whatever.
I understand it.
And it makes me really wonder, you know, where he is in that timeline.
Well, and by the way, everybody, every news organization, cable news program, podcast, they're all hyped up for Kamala Harris.
I understand it.
We'll get to her in a second.
They all want to go ahead and do the proper thing through the media, which is to say, Joe Biden did the right thing, you know, like all, he's a great servant, all of that stuff.
The Democratic Party right now has a chance to redefine itself.
But I want to set the record straight on this, Nick.
There are stories that are leaking out right now because they need to be on the record, but they're not going to get any attention.
And the stories right now are that Biden's cognitive decline and impairment was obvious back in 2021.
You're hearing about him giving speeches and addressing the caucus and Nancy Pelosi having to come up after him in order to deliver the message that he was unable to do and then got lost.
The Democratic Party did America a disservice in this situation.
We shouldn't forget that.
We should not forget that this was a situation where Biden's health and his ability to do the job Was hidden from us.
And it was hidden from us for political purposes.
That's wrong.
That was not good for this country.
And I have to tell you, and I know you know this as well, we saw moments where Biden had great leadership.
But guess what?
That also changes one more thing that I want to get on the record, Nick, because people who have been listening to this show need to hear it.
Do you remember when we talked about Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema and the whole filibuster thing, whenever they were like, they were being the de facto leaders, you know, as Joe Biden wasn't in the arena fighting and advocating?
You had to bring that up, huh?
We talked about it as maybe Joe Biden doesn't think the president should be getting himself involved in the Senate.
Don't you think with the information that we have now, that maybe Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema and other members of the Democratic Party who set aside his agenda and ruined parts of it, do you not think that they were taking advantage of that situation?
I could see that, but they weren't taking advantage in the sense that they were already planning to get involved in the race because they figured he was going to not run, right?
That's part of it as well.
Also, Joe Manchin is nothing but a narcissistic opportunist.
He's a disgusting person.
And I think in this situation, Joe Biden could not effectively do the job of advocating his own policies or fighting the fights.
It's why the Congress was left alone to its own devices.
And I think now we need to understand the Democratic Party did this.
This happened.
It's problematic.
We need to move on.
We need to do other things.
But we do need to remember how this thing took place.
Well, here's a question, and it's probably, we can spend 10 seconds on it, but, you know, traditionally when you have announcements like this, you know, you have Reagan, you have Nixon, you have Clinton, they sit down, the Oval Office, the lights, they put the mic on them, and the whole thing, and they speak to the camera, and they talk to us for however many minutes.
This did not happen.
It's a little bit strange.
They decided to do it on X of all places.
Is this only because he's got COVID and would probably be coughing during it?
Or what is going on?
How did that end up happening?
It is an interesting thing that it took place on Twitter.
I think you're right about that.
It's been running around in my head a little bit.
Can I say one last thing on the Biden thing before we get into his historical legacy and how this changes it?
Sure.
I'm looking at this entire thing, and I'm going to say something which I couldn't imagine saying a month ago.
Are you ready?
I'm sitting down.
It was an apocalyptic, terrible moment.
All of us were stressed out and depressed.
And my God, was it traumatic to have Joe Biden go out and give that debate performance.
You ready for this?
We're very fortunate.
We're very fortunate that it happened.
That it happened when it happened, that they took the gamble to have the debate, that it took place.
It was awful for him.
I feel so bad that that happened to him publicly.
It had to hurt, and he has to be incredibly hurt by this whole thing.
It hurt his family, all of that.
Politically, culturally, democratically, we are very fortunate to be where we are today as we record this, with Kamala Harris as the nominee, with a coalescing Democratic Party that has energy and hope.
I know that's terrible, but now in hindsight, it seems like we were very fortunate.
Jared, I'm going to reiterate that that is no moon.
I don't think it was a fortunate accident that that's how it played out.
This is going to be something you and I are going to talk about for years, by the way.
I feel that.
We're going to be able, we're going to be able to, for someone to figure out the actual answer and then rub it in the other person's face, we won't do that.
But, you know, somebody, somebody knows and someone's going to be able to tell us.
Maybe we won't have to tell the public, but we'll get that sorted out.
But I refuse to believe That wasn't part of the calculation.
And it actually makes a lot of sense.
Maybe Aaron Sorkin would have written this in a Western magazine.
And do we want to bring up what he's suggesting?
Because that guy... You know, for those who don't know, Aaron Sorkin out-Sorkined himself and suggested that they pick Mitt Romney as the VP, which shut the hell up.
Shut the hell up, Aaron Sorkin.
Go home.
Go to bed.
Do not pass Go.
Do not collect $200.
Go to bed.
Wow, yes, we might as well use monopoly.
That's levels.
Nick, when we get to January, when the next president is being sworn in, we'll talk about the larger legacy of the Biden administration.
But just before we get into the Kamala Harris nomination and campaign and everything that's happened in the past 24 hours, how do you think history is going to look at this particular decision by Joe Biden?
Okay.
Well, you could do it as a results-based thing, where if Kamala wins, right, and he does become that patriot who, you know, sacrificed for the country and all those good things, you know, if Kamala loses, it becomes a second-guessing game and all sorts of issues that we were in your hands.
But either way, I do feel like it should be a positive.
It should be a thing where, you know, somebody did put country over party, over ambition, over all those things, over power, which is rare.
So overall, and I do feel like Kamala has a good chance to beat him in a way that it feels good that he'll get even an extra bump from that.
So I think this will be one of those things where we'll use it, like we mentioned, Nixon against JFK and how that cost him the election to some degree.
And the same thing here, but then also, you know, bowing out to let somebody else win is, I think it'll be a good thing.
If Kamala Harris wins this election, it will be seen as an act of incredible selflessness and political courage.
If she loses, I have to tell you, I think we're going to look back at this very much like the Lyndon B. Johnson decision in 1968, which of course, eventually you see Richard Nixon winning the presidency.
And I think it is very fascinating because history does not repeat, it rhymes.
Joe Biden came into his presidency saying that he was going to be the next Franklin D. Roosevelt.
He wasn't.
He was the next Lyndon B. Johnson.
And that is not who anybody necessarily goes out looking for.
But if you look at Lyndon B. Johnson, Lyndon B. Johnson's great society had a ton of programs that actually made life in America better to a degree.
They weren't as sweeping as the New Deal.
And by the way, all of it was hurt and diminished because of an incredibly unpopular, unjust war that was absolutely tied to this person.
So I think it's very, very strange.
This is going to be seen as sort of a repeating moment or episode that looks a lot like Lyndon B. Johnson one way or another.
I know, but now you're making me worried.
We have to have a bit of a frank conversation for a few minutes because After what happened in Pennsylvania with Trump, and now what's going on here, if you've been monitoring what the right is doing, the crazies are really getting whipped up because they feel like this is not fair, they thought they were going to be able to do this without any problem, this is a circumvention of democracy.
Like of all the things that we've been sort of warning about Trump, they have now 720, flipped it around, 720, 360, whatever.
It's all the way around a couple different times.
And so what my big worry is, and remember, this is the Lyndon Johnson legacy as well, because when he steps down, Nixon didn't have to win.
Bobby Kennedy, sorry, but Bobby Kennedy stepping in late had momentum and certainly would have given him a big run for his money until- Bobby Kennedy would have beat Richard Nixon.
You know, fine.
think bobby kennedy would have beat richard nixon i think that would have happened fair enough right so so yes we're in this i don't want to be in a similar situation here because what i'm worried about is someone's going to be like oh you're going to do that to us you know fine well somebody would be crazy enough to sacrifice their life to make this point uh as as some twisted horrible version of what they would have felt like is protecting democracy uh it's She's got to be very, I mean, that's what making me, it's keeping me up the last night about that.
And as we see the head of Secret Service being hauled in front of Congress today, I don't know if you saw any of that.
Did you see it?
Yeah, I paid attention.
Yeah.
So, you know, all of that is coming into a thing too, which I'm really, really worried about.
And of course, as the 68 is brought up, it just comes back and hits me in the face.
Yeah, I'll tell you this, and I know that people listening at home don't want to hear me say this, the twists and turns of this election are not over.
There is no way, shape, or form that this thing is going to calm down.
It's only going to get weirder and more convoluted.
I hope that that's not true.
I hope we have seen an end to the political violence, but my instinct tells me that we might see something a little rough happen before this whole thing's over.
But into better news, Nick, Kamala Harris is now the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party.
Joe Biden immediately endorsed her as his pick for the Democratic nominee.
What followed was rank and file within the Democratic Party.
Nancy Pelosi wrapped her arms around her.
All 50 states have now devoted their delegates to her at the convention, making her again The presumptive nominee.
In the past two days, the party and the campaign have raised record amounts of number north of $100 million in roughly 24 hours.
All of those faucets and spigots that stopped during the Biden campaign have not only opened, but they have exploded in cartoonish fashion.
We are seeing incredible enthusiasm within the Democratic Party.
Again, it feels like a weight has been lifted.
People are getting excited.
People are getting hopeful.
I think, and there's a lot to discuss about this, including her strategy, the VP hunt, all of that stuff.
Nick, I feel like within 24 hours, Kamala Harris, who has been the Vice President of the United States for the past four years, had been a senator before that.
I feel like she came into her own in the public perception.
I don't know if it's people wishing for it.
I don't know if she's meeting the moment.
But it feels as if there has been a transformation or an evolution there.
And it feels like literally everything has changed.
I mean, it feels that way.
She's got about, you know, two weeks to get out there now and fulfill that reality, right?
That's still a little bit of a concern, but you have to imagine she's grown and she's learned and she's studied what happened in 2020 and can figure it out.
I mean, the funny thing is I've been looking at, again, how the right's reacting.
I got a chance to see the RNC's talking points.
They're hilarious.
I don't know if you saw them, but like they want to hit her on laughing too much.
Like, it's really as horrible as that, or as ridiculous as that.
Can I say something about that very quickly?
First of all, she's goofy.
She is.
She laughs, she jokes around, all of that stuff.
I actually think that makes her likable to a degree, but I will say... Well, isn't there a segment of the population that's pretty popular, pretty big in this country, that would respond to dancing with a good rhythm and laughing?
A lot of people respond to it.
She's kind of cool in a lot of different ways, even though she's kind of a goofy stepmom.
And I want to say this.
I've been doing a lot of research on her.
When the Biden thing started going down, I started looking at her and trying to wrap my head around whether or not she could be an effective candidate.
I was saying about two and a half weeks ago that if he dropped out, it had to be her.
And one of the reasons I started to feel that is this, and this is like some of that, you know how like when you, like with you in basketball, you study a team and you know what's happening underneath the hood that maybe not the casual observer can?
Yeah.
Do you know what her problem was as vice president?
I mean, I thought part of it was oration.
Oration is part of it, and do you know why?
Why?
They didn't challenge her.
They didn't give her things to do outside of the bullshit that Biden didn't want to do.
And she didn't want to do it either!
Dude, in her speeches and presentations, she wasn't engaged.
She was just kind- and that's a problem.
If she wants to become president of the United States, and not just president, the first woman president in the history of the United States, and become an incredibly transformational president, she has to lock in And in a way, she's kind of lucky that it's a shorter campaign because, you know, a lot of candidates, they get tired.
Like, we see the highlights and the stuff, but it gets boring giving the same sort of speech everywhere you go, just seeing the same sort of people.
Like, she has to lock in and show up to game, more or less.
Yeah.
And one of the issues is she got a little loose in laughing and talking and ad-libbing and maybe not even really paying attention or preparing.
And I think the vice presidency, I think that she kind of didn't particularly like being the vice president until Roe v. Wade got overturned.
And she was vociferous about that.
She was locked in and talked about it constantly and was an incredible advocate for the women of America because she cared about it.
Well, absolutely, that is going to be one of the biggest factors in this race.
The Democrats need to figure out how to get more women out to vote.
I mean, the white women are going to vote for Trump.
You know what I mean?
Some of them are, yes.
I think it's more than half, I believe, when you look at the polls, at least from last one.
Uh, if it's not, it's really close.
And you would think that even still, and I had a conversation with my dental hygienist, don't ask me how, about this, in California.
And she was like leaning towards Trump.
And I said, well, wouldn't you, as a medical professional, wouldn't you think that, you know, abortion is important to you?
And she goes, well, yeah, but it doesn't matter.
I live in California.
And I was like, well, thinking this i'm like well shouldn't you care about everybody else in the country as well shouldn't this be a thing like and then solidarity uh but at the very least she's going to tap into all the other women who understand the threat that trump is um and won't vote for him and that's going to probably be the big sway here are we are we is that where we're at are we still at this whole bullshit about it's going to be three states for 60 000 people
i you know what i we talked yesterday about how a lot of things are still up in the air And by the way, we're going to play a clip here that's going to show you the main Kamala Harris campaign strategy, the message that's going to get across.
And we'll talk a little bit about that.
I think what she needs to do is she needs to show America, and by the way, Trump's already said that he said he'll debate her.
Who knows if he does?
I don't know if you remember this, Nick.
Do you remember what happened to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the primary in 2020?
Oh, I remember it very well.
Yes.
Joe Biden was in the middle of talking about his record and Kamala Harris grabbed the platform and told him off, the former vice president and the future president, on his position on busing.
And did it in a way that nearly knocked him out of the race.
And I mean, she is really tough on a debate stage.
And if she's locked in, she's a brawler.
She really truly is.
If she can humble Trump or show America she can stand up to him, I think there's a good chance it's her election to lose.
Absolutely.
I mean, we saw her with Bill Barr when she's on the Senate committee grilling him.
Although, again, she didn't quite go all the way.
It seemed like she had more information that she was letting on and trying to lead him into it and he was doing the lawyer thing.
But there's no question that's her strongest suit when she is being lawyerly, you know, and prosecutorial.
It's not that kind of, you know, where you're, you wouldn't like it.
It's the kind that you see, like, in the movies when the big Perry Mason moment happens.
She's really good with that.
I don't think, you don't think she was going to debate him.
He's going to debate her.
If he is smart, he won't.
Absolutely.
He's sexist and he's racist.
So he probably is not going to approach her with a lot of respect.
And so that'll, that might get him.
Um, so Nick, I had a call today.
Uh, I had a strategy call with a few people.
Um, what you're getting ready to hear from Kamala Harris is more or less baked into the cake, the election, uh, communication strategy when it comes to Donald Trump.
And we'll discuss in just a second.
This is from today.
So in the days and weeks ahead, I, together with you, will do everything in my power.
To unite our Democratic Party, to unite our nation, and to win this election.
You know, as many of you know, before I was elected as Vice President, before I was elected as United States Senator, I was the elected Attorney General, as I've mentioned, of California.
Before that, I was a courtroom prosecutor.
In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds.
Predators who abused women.
Fraudsters who ripped off consumers.
Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.
So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump's type.
Nick, I want to point out for people who maybe don't follow this stuff or study it, something she did there, which is really, really smart.
You can, and by the way, it's a perfect made narrative, right?
We have a prosecutor now against Donald Trump.
It's the People's Prosecutor against Donald Trump, a convicted felon.
Perfect storyline.
It's exactly what needs to happen.
Anybody else, or most people, would make those statements and would let everybody fill in the blanks.
I've dealt with men who have abused women, fraudsters, criminals.
They wouldn't take it the extra step and make sure that you know that not only is she talking about Donald Trump, she is calling Donald Trump a sexual predator and a felony absolute crook.
And she's not afraid of it.
And look how comfortable she was doing that.
Now, that was masterful, especially because she has to be careful about coming off as someone who is going to, quote unquote, like, prosecute her political rivals, right?
That is probably a fourth rail.
Is it third rail?
Third rail.
Third rail.
You can't touch because that would probably be a little bit of getting close to some of these independents who would be worried about that.
And that would be something that the Republicans could latch on to, right?
So, it's enough to be able to do it that way, and I think that was, I was getting a little chills, like the way, and also that her oration, then cheer and then not speak, it was terrific.
So, but again, there's a little bit of a tightrope there, don't you think?
Oh, absolutely.
And that's a, that's one of the things.
That you have to be careful with.
You don't want to say that if you win the election you're going to use the power of the government to persecute Donald Trump, because you don't want to do that, right?
But what have we been waiting for, Nick?
For eight years since he came down that damn escalator, we've been waiting for someone to lay it to him.
And there have been moments like Hillary Clinton got a couple of shots in on him.
Joe Biden called him a clown.
I think everybody kind of enjoyed that.
Like there have been moments.
Dude, the catharsis of watching a competent, intelligent black woman put Trump in his place on the national stage when he is posing the largest threat to the country.
That's what we want.
That's what we need.
There's one thing that's missing in all of this, and by the way, Kamala Harris has a very interesting political record.
She's been very, very progressive at times, and as a former prosecutor and attorney general, she's been less progressive at times.
We're not really sure how that's going to work out in the wash, because you don't always know until the person becomes president, who they are and what they would do with all of that power.
There's one thing that's missing.
The prosecutor storyline is absolutely the perfect narrative.
And in a sexist, racist country, it lets everyone know that you are strong and capable, right?
It gets rid of that just to start.
And by being a prosecutor or an attorney general as a woman, Nick, you have to dispel that notion to even get in that position, right?
So she knows what she's doing there.
There's one thing missing.
What are you going to do with all that power?
What's the agenda?
What's the big change?
Don't just tell us hope and change.
Tell us what it looks like.
Tell us what you're going to get done if you get the House and the Senate.
What are you going to do about the Supreme Court?
How are you going to change our economy?
How are you going to make America a better place to live?
You get that down with that narrative, that's a winning ticket right there.
Absolutely.
And I feel like they're now, you know, getting down there to figure this, that whole thing out and give her that platform that she will then be able to run with and won't get tired of it, right?
Because it's not a lot of time until the election.
And so I think that's, I think she'll be really good with that as long as she avoids the phrasing, what was in the past and the future, whatever that one was.
But the funny thing is, is, you know, again, there's not a lot to attack her on if you're looking at it from the rights perspective.
What are they going to say?
She was too tough on crime?
There's progressives who are upset with the way she handled pot, people who had pot and that stuff in California.
But again, the Republicans can't hit her on that.
There's a diminishing list of things that they're going to be able to do that make them look more like buffoons the more they try and get this going, which is why As an act of desperation, Trump actually might do the debate because he might feel like it's his last chance.
It's scheduled in September.
I want to say like September 10th, which is also as early, right?
Isn't it normally like October?
Yeah, it's both of them would usually be in October.
They're going to hit the DEI candidate replacement candidate hard.
That's all they can do.
That's literally they can just lean in into the sexism racism.
That's how they got the deeper racism though that she's not a citizen.
They're going to well, that's that's another thing where this is going to go.
Nick.
We need to update.
We had talked on the emergency episode yesterday about the VP nomination push.
And we've had a change today.
It appears that Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has pulled her name out of the race, saying she's focused on being the governor and she will support the ticket wherever it goes.
Whitmer was a top-tier candidate, but also still a dark horse.
The idea here Has been recently that Andy Beshear, the governor of Texas, Pete Buttigieg, the Transportation Secretary, Mark Kelly of Arizona has started rearing up as a potential candidate, and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who I'll talk about in just a second.
But Nick, just for my own personal gratification, can you roll that beautiful bean footage of Andy Beshear talking about JD Vance?
And I want the American people to know what a Kentuckian is and what they look like, because let me just tell you that JD Vance ain't from here.
The nerve that he has to call the people of Kentucky, of Eastern Kentucky, lazy.
Listen, these are the hard-working coal miners that powered the Industrial Revolution, that created the strongest middle class the world has ever seen, powered us through two world wars.
We should be thanking them, not calling them lazy.
Nick, I got the vapors over here.
Can you play that one more time?
Oh, I think so.
Just purely journalistic purposes.
It's not like I'm getting any gratification from this.
No.
No, it's not appealing to me at all.
What a Kentuckian is and what they look like because let me just tell you that J.D.
Vance ain't from here.
Oh, the nerve that he has to call the people of Kentucky, of Eastern Kentucky, lazy.
Listen, these are the hard-working coal miners that powered the Industrial Revolution, that created the strongest middle class the world has ever seen, powered us through two world wars.
We should be thanking them, not calling them lazy.
Nick, do you feel the generational shift that has taken place in the last 24 hours?
Yeah.
You know what it's made me think?
Here's what's going to happen.
You already talked about a bump in the polls.
I don't know how long it's going to last.
I feel like this is just designed to always get close and whatever.
But let's just say she maintains that bit of a lead.
How long is it going to take for Trump to turn on J.D.
Vance?
We'll get to good old J.D.
in just a second.
Just you believe me.
Um, yeah, that that's an interesting idea that he's going to turn into.
Oh, yeah, hold on.
Hold on.
I need to compose myself.
I was very excited about Bashir's attack on him.
Now I'm having to imagine a terrible situation where JD Vance has Trump turn on him and call him a loser and blame him for his defeat.
That's a spicy meatball.
And I will take it.
I will hold onto it in my heart and in my mind.
Andy Beshear has become the frontrunner in the VP candidacy.
And I gotta tell you, Beshear's politics are really good.
He's right on so much, you name an issue, and he is practically 100% right on all of this stuff.
He's a bulldog.
He's a fighter.
He gives you a foothold in the Midwest and the beginnings of the South.
He's a great contender.
And maybe you want Mark Kelly because you want an older white man who can maybe give you Arizona, although I have to tell you, Arizona's gone.
You're not getting Arizona.
That's not happening.
You're not getting Indiana with Pete Buttigieg, and I have my problems with Pete Buttigieg.
I don't think it should be him.
Andy Beshear is a really, really attractive vice presidential candidate.
I agree.
I think he needs to do another, a bigger job of getting more on the scene and letting everyone else know who he is.
He's still a little bit obscure, you know, to the general national, uh, you know, uh, discussion.
Uh, but I like him.
Yeah.
I certainly think he's hitting a lot of those boxes.
Right.
He's not now, does he have the Tim Kaine vibes to you or is he something?
No, no, no, no.
He's got charisma.
He's, he's got personality.
He's, he's got it.
I mean, listen, the way Tim Kaine played with those balloons after the DNC last, you know, 2016.
That was charismatic, Jared.
Come on now.
That was childish, is what it was.
I want to share with the audience, I made a suggestion today on the strategy call that I took, which is this.
Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, popular, effective governor of Pennsylvania.
He's on the list.
I don't think you put him in there.
And here's the reason why.
Josh Shapiro is one of the most talented administrators and technocrats in American politics today.
He has created a modern political machine in Pennsylvania the likes of which you wouldn't believe.
Do you know where you need that?
The DNC.
You need him running the party and putting together a strategy.
You play your cards right.
You actually put together a coalition that does things and actually addresses neoliberal austerity.
Nick, we're not just talking four years of Kamala Harris.
We're talking eight years of Kamala Harris, eight years of Andy Beshear, and God knows what happens after that.
You have a consensus change and shift with actual strategy.
Jamie Harrison is not getting it done, did not show up in this entire Biden situation.
Josh Shapiro to take over the DMC.
That's the move.
You do that.
Maybe Pete can help him there.
I don't know, but whatever.
Wow, now you're giving me the vapors.
There you go!
Vapors is a good thing, right Jared?
Oh yeah!
No, you got to sit down on your couch.
You got to catch your breath a little bit.
You got excited.
Okay, yes.
Okay, yes.
I like all of that.
What you just laid out, I'm on board for.
And at least today, I can see that.
Two days ago, Couldn't have seen it, right?
I couldn't even visualize what that looked like.
But yes, now the thing is, you know, is Shapiro better served, like, you know, being the governor?
The funny thing is, like, she can't pick anybody as a senator anyway, because they can't afford to lose that seat, right?
And it's, and you know, the only thing about Bashir is if he gets called up now, he doesn't get to replace McConnell, which I think would have been the chef's kiss.
I'd like to see him be able to do that as his final act in office.
You know, either way, that's where the winds are blowing.
And you know how this goes.
Once the winds start blowing in a direction, it's hard to get him to go anywhere else.
So Bashir, that's really what it feels like.
And do you really think it's going to take more than a week?
I don't know.
I really, truly don't know.
There's a small shadow campaign being waged.
Wes Moore of Maryland held an event for Kamala Harris today.
She didn't go, but he wanted to show her how enthusiastic he was.
So there is a race right now, is basically what's taking place.
Yeah.
You know, all the tweets came out.
Everyone was congratulating her, you know.
They were very excited for her.
I just want to say before we get into the shit show that was the RNC and J.D.
Vance, because, man, I can't wait for people to see this.
Nick, it's a hopeful, optimistic time.
The Democrats have a lot of things breaking their way right now.
And they have the potential to not just win this election, but to change the country in a way that will fundamentally change our lives for the better.
The question is whether or not the party will meet the moment.
And we don't know yet.
We only know what that last generation did.
And they capitulated, and they did everything that the Republicans wanted them to do, save for a handful of things.
They had basically the same domestic policy.
They had the exact same foreign policy.
So it is time to see if something changes now.
It's an interesting bridge because Kamala isn't quite in the younger generation either.
She's on the younger side, but yeah, she's not Bashir for sure.
Yeah, but we're getting back to where Obama was around this age, I think.
I have to look at the ages.
You know, I mean, listen, one day we're gonna find somebody who's magnetic and who's 38, 39, like under 40, right, just barely eligible to be the president, who really can tap into that and lead us.
But we've got to start somewhere, and this is where it would be.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to that day, though.
I want to see, and I know everybody under age 30 is also looking for that as well.
We don't know if she's her.
Yeah, we haven't seen enough.
I will say I am so grateful that we, I'm so grateful we've gotten beyond the Biden nomination.
Yeah, I'm so grateful for it.
I'm so glad I, Nick, I'm so glad I get to go into the ballot box in November and not feel conflicted.
That's great.
And let's not forget, this was the plan from the very beginning anyway, right?
That's the other thing I'm going to be convinced of is that he was always only going to run for one term and let her take over until Let the record show, by the way, because again, we call balls and strikes where they are.
The reports are, and the scuttlebutt is, that he, one of the reasons he wasn't getting out is because he didn't believe that Kamala Harris could bring the Democratic Party together.
It happened in four hours, Nick.
It happened in four hours.
It worked out.
OK, we got to talk about Donald Trump's speech at the RNC very, very quickly.
It was absolutely awful.
I don't know if you saw this.
He was introduced by the trio of trios.
Hulk Hogan, who, if you remember, was canceled for saying the N-word.
Uh, Kid Rock, one of the worst performances I've ever seen anybody ever give.
The white squares at the convention looked very confused.
Dana White, UFC, who just screamed at everybody for a long time.
Trump then came out.
And Nick, tell me if I'm wrong.
Our entire media complex was rooting for him to have had a spiritual reawakening following the assassination attempt.
He's going to pivot, guys.
It's going to happen this time.
We're going to see a tone of unity.
He's going to be a different man.
And what did we get?
The same Trump that we have always had.
It turns out that this guy isn't going to change ever.
He gave a rambling hour and a half speech that people were visibly trying not to pass out during.
It was self-serving.
It was divisive.
It was disgusting.
They shot themselves in the foot here.
They had this whole race to win, Nick.
They had a huge advantage during the Biden thing and the assassination attempt, and they squandered it.
Because they're the most self-destructive, destructive assholes that we have ever seen.
I mean, listen, he did spend the first, you know, 20 minutes retailing the tale of him being shot at.
Oh yeah, God saved him, by the way.
God, God saved him that day.
Have you seen, you know, I just seen like some of the things where they demonstrate what it looks like when a bullet passes by your ear that quickly, where it's supposed to look like Whatever.
Piece of glass, bullet, whatever.
It doesn't matter.
But the point being that you could tell... Actually, it was written pretty well.
I think he was on script for a lot of that.
But you could also tell that he was so mortified by having to describe a situation where he was weak.
You know, and it just about shot and like he wasn't this uber guy who's gonna dodge bullets or whatever.
And so it was almost like that energy was coming out.
But the other thing is, it felt like a lot of people were sort of surprised or shocked or couldn't believe what he was saying in the speech.
This is the exact speech he's been doing the entire time.
I did an interview!
I did an interview the day before this thing, Nick, and the person interviewing me was like, do you think Donald Trump is going to give a different type of speech?
What are you expecting?
And I said the exact same thing that he always does!
It was cheap and embarrassing and demeaning.
Nick, we haven't even talked about the fact, for people who didn't watch this, the firefighter supporter who died at his rally, they wheeled a dummy with his uniform on it onto the stage.
Trump walked over and hugged it and gave the helmet a kiss.
One of the most disgusting stunts that I have ever seen in American politics.
He can't change who he is.
Would you believe if I told you that they spelled his last name wrong?
They misspelled his name!
So that was not his jacket.
They misspelled his name.
One of the worst stunts I've ever seen.
Trump cannot change.
Nick, all he had to do was go out and give a scripted speech that wasn't crazy and wasn't dangerous and divisive.
And the media would have, they would have ate it out of his hand like a starving kitten.
And he couldn't do it.
He couldn't even do it.
Right.
Remember there was that one moment in 2016 where he finally had like some almost a normal speech and everyone's like, Oh, there it is.
He's now filling the shoes or whatever.
And that, by the way, that was the moment that we realized, shit, he really is a candidate who could possibly win back in 2016.
Um, and this is another one of those moments where, but like, I'm not sure the picture was painted properly for people who are listening to this.
You know, you have a, you have a, a mannequin, right.
With a jacket on it and then the hat on top of it.
And so on the bottom of the jacket, like facing the audience, the back of the jacket is his name.
And that was misspelled.
Not like a name on the screen or anything.
They misspelled the name that they stitched onto this fake jacket of someone else or whatever it was to memorialize the guy who got shot at this rally.
If that's not abject disrespect for somebody, I can't even imagine what it was.
They don't even care.
But that's a manga!
That's the Four Seasons press conference.
Yeah.
They're just stupid and lazy.
They're the most entitled human beings that you can ever imagine.
And by the way, that guy was killed at Trump's rally.
He was a Trump mega fan who was devoted to him.
Look at how he uses these people and spits on them.
Like, people have to recognize it.
Nick, that was bad enough.
And by the way, squandered any goodwill that was left over from the assassination survival.
But here's the thing, and I want to say, if it's okay, I want to be indulgent.
Are you ready?
Indulge.
Someone asked me a couple of weeks ago when J.D.
Vance got announced as the, I guess it was last week, when J.D.
Vance got announced as the nominee, they said, what is it like for your own personal nemesis to be nominated for vice president in this country?
And I said what I felt, which is it's upsetting.
It's really, really upsetting and infuriating.
But do you know what, Nick?
Watching J.D.
Vance show the world how incredibly untalented and unlikable and miserable and nauseating, watching that play out so far has been way more enjoyable than I ever expected.
Here's J.D.
Vance stretching his little wings!
What a tough little beard boy here, stretching his wings at his first Trump rally.
I can't wait to see.
I assume it's going to be thrilling.
It is the weirdest thing to me.
Democrats say that it is racist to believe... Well, they say it's racist to do anything.
I had a dive Mountain Dew yesterday and one today.
I think there was one person clapping while he's saying I love you guys.
Have you, have you ever been at a thing where like a comedian is bombing?
Actually, no, bring it back on.
No, don't, don't get rid of that.
We're watching that again.
We're watching that again.
Oftentimes I close these out pretty quick.
So I'm watching that again, Nick.
Do you know what that was?
For the people who were listening to this and not watching, I want you to listen to it again.
Do you know what energy this is?
Are you ready?
What?
Please clap.
That's the energy?
The Jeb Bush please clap.
That's what this was.
Dude, these people are at a Trump rally!
They're maniacs!
They're ready to go, baby!
Diamond and Silk went out there.
Do you know what they're thinking right now?
Do we still have Doug Burgum's cell phone number?
Exactly.
Do you think he's on vacation with his big eyebrows?
Like, is there some way we can get him?
Dude, literally, I want people to listen to this.
Not just what J.D.
Vance is saying, and it's so weird.
Listen to the literal sound of silence.
Yeah, guys, I have to make an admission real quickly.
For most of this time, I kind of just sort of had a big shrug for this guy.
You were sounding the alarm and really trying to make, and I'm like, you know, okay.
At least I'm starting to get a much clearer glimpse even from something like this because just even the the racist line and then by the way like people laugh that's a laugh line oh yeah it's so funny so funny it's gross it's just it's all gross he advocates for women to stay in abusive marriages Like, he is one of the most disgusting individuals who has drawn a breath of modern air.
And I love it that he's sitting here eating shit.
Roll it again.
Alright, here we go.
Give it to us.
Give it to us.
It is the weirdest thing to me.
Democrats say that it is racist to believe.
Well, they say it's racist to do anything.
I had a dive Mountain Dew yesterday and one today.
I'm sure they're gonna call that racist too, but it's good.
good.
I love you guys.
One human soul clapping because they couldn't stand to watch him.
They had to do it.
It's like when a person that a complete stranger in a store says something weird to you, you go, that's what that was.
Right.
And I don't know.
I don't think he should be drinking Mountain Dew.
Wait, why?
Which one with Mountain Dew?
Oh, no, you drink Mountain Dew?
I mean, no, I don't.
No, I don't.
But I mean, I did when I was younger.
You know, because it's racist.
No, it's not.
It's it's it's just really, really bad for you, man.
I mean, not good for you.
No, no.
I mean, if I'm correct, if I'm wrong, Mountain Dew has got like more caffeine per square inch than than, you know, a shot of a line of cocaine or something like that.
Oh, man.
California is showing my man.
I will also say, by the way, There are certain people... And by the way, I hate J... I really struggle to think about anybody that I hate more than J.D.
Vance.
Like, there's just something very, very intense about it.
Dude, if I saw him drinking a giant Mountain Dew...
Like, I would, it would upset me.
Do you know what I mean?
Just look at his face.
Just, just look on the screen.
Look at, he's almost at the angle where he would drink a Mountain Dew.
Would that not ruin your month?
Would you not want to go home and sell your house if you saw this man drinking a Diet Mountain Dew?
I would be.
He's upsetting, there's no question.
And the more we see him, and again, I really want you to ask in the visualization of Trump blaming him for everything that's going to happen if it gets bad for their campaign.
Because again, it really doesn't feel like there's going to be, Trump is stuck, right?
He's not moving up in the polls, right?
This is only really a matter about can they reach, you know, what's that movie where the hand comes through the ground and grabs them from the grave?
Oh, that's Carrie.
You know what it is, in my mind, Nick, because I'm running this movie in my mind and it feels so good.
Like, I'm gonna be thinking about this for the rest of the night while I'm eating dinner, while I'm doing things.
It's like the 1980 screwball comedy.
Like it's a bunch of guys like skiing against the cool preps who have all the money and the power and there's like a real villain he's like the he's like the developer with all the money but then he has the ski like henchman the main cool guy he would play he'd be played by what Zubko was that the guy's name?
Billy Zofka.
Zofka!
He would be played by Billy Zofka, but like at the end of the movie, like even the real estate developer would be pissed off at the bully and would turn on him.
It'd be like a double catharsis.
Oh, that's so enjoyable.
You could describe the plot to Better Off Dead.
Exactly.
Think about J.D.
Vance on election night being left on the tarmac by Trump Force One.
Think about Trump taking off in his stupid ass plane and J.D.
Vance standing there just like weeping and wetting his pants.
Just weeping and weeping and weeping.
Well, hopefully the guy that took a picture of Trump with a bullet whizzing by his head will get the picture.
Oh, get that picture!
Get that picture.
We need that picture.
All right, everybody, I need to go calm down.
This was too enjoyable.
Dare I say, Nick, We cover a lot of scary shit on this show, a lot of disturbing shit on the show.
This was one of our happier episodes.
Yeah, it was.
I mean, yeah.
Yeah.
Because when we started this thing, it was kind of like, you know, Trump was being elected.
Ugh.
So, yeah, we've had a long time to get to this point.
This was a pretty happy one.
Let's keep it going, what do you say?
Yeah, let next week be even better news.
All right, we'll be back on Friday with The Weekender.
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