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Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman discuss how touching Biden's speech was announcing he was stepping down. They analyze ways the GOP will try to attack Kamala Harris and how it could go seriously wrong for them. They finish on the internet memery that is JD Vance and his couch.
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Hey, everybody, welcome to the Weekender Edition of the McCrick Podcast.
I'm Jared Yates Sexton.
I'm here with Nick Halsman.
Nick, how you doing, pal?
I'm good.
I'm great.
I'm good.
In fact, I was asking before, you know that little, that study they did once where it says if you keep your office organized, you work better?
Absolutely.
I would second that emotion.
You and I are different.
I don't let my office get messy.
I think that's where you and I depart.
Having been in my office, yes, that is a way of accurately describing what I do.
And you're right, I can go a year or two and kind of just things accumulate and pile up and it's not good.
See, mine has to do with my fluctuating emotional state, so sometimes it's not messy, it's just I'm messy.
I think that's how that thing works.
Ah, okay.
Well, yeah, all that is right, so keep your office space organized.
It really helps.
Keep it organized, everybody listening at home.
Maybe put us on!
Maybe take care of your office.
Listen, I'm an office.
I'm a cleaner.
I'm a podcast listener.
I'm a joker.
I'm a midnight toker.
Everybody, we have so much to talk about today.
Things are just absolutely moving and they're weird.
And if you think for a second that I am not going to talk at length about the JD Vance Internet Rumors?
You are dead wrong, my friend.
But you're going to need to go over to patreon.com slash muckrakepodcast and support your boys, which more and more people are doing, Nick.
Things are blowing up.
People are coming to us.
And why?
Because we've been telling you what's going to happen.
We've been giving you analysis that other people aren't going to.
You trust us.
You know us.
patreon.com slash muckrakepodcast.
And plus, you get to hang out in the Discord and have discussions all day, every day with everybody.
It's an incredible community and people have become friends there.
It's really fascinating to watch.
It's been amazing.
It's absolutely fantastic.
It's one of my favorite things.
Nick, we have to start this episode.
President Joe Biden, we're recording this on Thursday, July 25th, which means that last night, Wednesday night, President Joe Biden gave an Oval Office address and made it official.
Originally, it was on Twitter where he made the announcement he was stepping aside in the nomination process, but he gave an address in which he talked to the nation and talked about his decision.
When you elect me to this office, I promise to always level with you, to tell you the truth.
The truth, the sacred cause of this country is larger than any one of us.
Those of us who cherish that cause, cherish it so much, the cause of American democracy itself, must unite to protect it.
You know, in recent weeks, it's become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor.
I believe, I record as president, my leadership in the world, My vision for America's future all merited a second term.
But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy.
That includes personal ambition.
So I've decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.
It's the best way to unite our nation.
I know there is a time and a place for long years of experience in public life.
There's also a time and a place for new voices.
Fresh voices.
Yes, younger voices.
And that time and place is now.
Nick, this was, I don't know how you felt about it, and I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.
I thought this was a really hard and emotional address.
I thought it had a lot of important things to say.
If you're going to give this address, I think you give it like Biden did.
Not only is he stressing passing the torch to a new generation of leaders, Kamala Harris in particular, but also still stressing the dangers that America has in front of it.
Yeah, I think whoever writes his speeches is really terrific.
You know who it is, right?
You know who wrote this?
No, who wrote it?
Jon Meacham.
Jon Meacham has been writing his last few speeches.
We like Jon Meacham and he is one of the smarter guys when you see him on TV talking.
There might be a little bit of frustration only because he's still, you know, the oration skills are diminished at this point, unfortunately.
Um, when you could tell, like, that was a really well-written line, you know, and it doesn't quite work, but, but he, what I'm listening to, if I read this as a transcript, that would be like, yeah, this is a terrific speech, uh, hit really important notes about what a person should be and how, how they should approach this job and what their personality kind of should have, certain traits they should have, um, in stark contrast to the other guy.
So, uh, yeah, I thought it was just really well done thing.
It's weird that it took a few extra days, but I'm glad they did it and they nailed it on that, so that was fun.
Yeah, I mean, the timing of everything was very, very strange the way it happened, but of course the president had COVID.
I'll say a couple of things on what you just brought up.
First of all, I've been watching Kamala Harris speeches over the past couple of days because, as an analyst, I want to get a sense of what presidential campaign Kamala Harris nominee looks like.
And by the way, she's really good.
The problem with her presidential campaign back in 2020 was never her oration.
The problem was the campaign organization and also what she was offering wasn't necessarily what people wanted at the time.
But to watch Biden now, after watching days of Kamala Harris as the presumptive nominee, it is wild.
It really, truly, like, just drove the point home further how much this needed to happen.
How much we needed to move from Biden to Kamala Harris.
The speech itself, and again, Meacham is really good at what he does.
I think that he and Biden have way too much faith in our institutions and America as an institution, but that's neither here nor there.
This hit all of the right notes.
It said all of the right things.
It sounded like Biden had gotten around to the perspective of why he needed to do this, which was important, and we needed to hear from him.
Hey, I understand why this happened, and let's move forward, and let's do something, you know, for democracy.
And he's right.
Democracy is in danger.
And he's right.
It is time to hand over power to a new generation, hand over leadership to a new generation.
It's what's taking shape and it's what needs to happen.
It was very, very hard to watch.
And I have problems with Joe Biden.
You know, things that have happened in Gaza, a lot of the positions he's taken over the years.
As I've said, he has been on the wrong side of a lot of historical decisions and moments.
But I will say what you just said is correct.
Which is you want, at the very least, to have a president in office.
They're going to make wrong decisions.
They're going to hurt people in bad, bad ways.
But you want them to have perspective.
You want them to be in the office and at least care about the country and at least care about the future and what happens to democracy and what happens to the office itself.
Biden cares about that.
He's not right about everything.
He has made a lot of wrong choices and taken a lot of wrong turns.
But that is what we kept hoping for at the very, very least out of a president.
And of course, you know this as well as our listeners know this, Donald Trump is not that, which is one of the reasons he's so dangerous.
Can you come with me into the boys bathroom for a minute so we can have a little talk, a little gossip?
Can we do that?
I'm sure.
I love it.
I haven't been invited for that in a long time.
Let's go.
This is where, you know, I'm talking about the real gossip.
It's probably, who knows if it's true or not, but I did see a little bit here and there about maybe perhaps Obama This was sort of sparked by Obama, I think.
Can we say that?
You could argue that perhaps the Clooney op-ed was sort of sanctioned.
I don't know if Obama wanted Kamala Harris to be the presumptive nominee, and so people were speculating that perhaps this is a little bit of an FU back to Obama saying, okay, fine, I will step down, but I'm going to name Kamala as the person I want to take over for me.
Versus what you probably wanted, which was just for me to step down and have a clean slate.
And maybe you, Obama, get to pick who is going to be like he did in 2020, perhaps.
Thoughts?
I do not think that you are far off from the truth here.
Number one, I want to say this.
I know there are a lot of people who still look back fondly at Barack Obama.
His control of the party at this point, it's a bit much.
You know what I mean?
Like, he's a former president.
He also doesn't make a lot of public statements.
Like, he's very happy to be in your neck of the woods in Los Angeles, you know, making deals.
Like, he still has an outsized role and control over the party.
And if Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party want to move forward and actually pass the torch, that's going to need to change.
But you're right.
Biden world and Obama world were not completely sold on Kamala Harris being the nominee.
Thank God she's showing up.
Thank God that the decision has been made and the party has coalesced around her.
I have problems with Kamala Harris.
I do not have 100% confidence in her.
But I'll say this, as the presumptive nominee, at least in this first week, she has shown up and performed very well.
But I think what you're saying is correct and true.
And I also want to say, I think it's problematic that so many of us have been like being anxious and nervous and angsty and scared because there has been this outsized influence over the party.
For sure.
And it just feels better, like, when you compare Kamala speaking, just from a speaking standpoint, which we know, unfortunately, is a really big part of this, right?
Compared to how Biden was performing.
And then also the reaction from the right has been kind of juicy.
It's been kind of nice to see them panic as well.
So are we going to get into that a little bit?
Well, in a little bit, we're going to get into that.
Let's go ahead and start talking about the initial couple of days of the Kamala Harris campaign.
Wait, I forgot one thing.
The thing about Obama, though, I don't think he necessarily wants to have this outsized role.
He probably feels like, goddammit, you keep dragging me back in here because of this and by that and alright, fine.
Like, I don't know, I kind of feel like he'd love to be, hey, it runs itself.
We set it all up and it's not working and I gotta get in there and do something.
I think that there's, I think that's probably what Barack Obama tells himself and what he says to Michelle when they're having dinner, you know, in Napa.
But actually I think what's occurring is every time there's a little bit of a glitch, because Obama's a control freak.
He always has been a control freak.
Anytime I've talked to somebody who's in the Obama campaign and or the Obama administration, there's a reason it worked the way it did.
And that's because he exerted incredible control and influence over everything that happened.
So I think he assumes he wants to be out, and they keep pulling him back in.
And yet, somehow or another, the decision and the influence always ends up on his plate.
Which is, you know, all of these people, we said it the other day, To be the President of the United States of America, you have to have a lot of stuff going on in your head.
And a lot of stuff going on inside of you.
Nick, I wanted to share, I've been on some strategy calls over the past few days.
The numbers so far, the internal polls for Kamala Harris are really good.
Depending upon what you're looking at, we're talking about a 3 to a 5 point general lead.
The battleground states have seemingly all turned around.
The momentum is with her.
I haven't seen any signs of any stumbling so far.
We're going to talk about the VP selection process and how it's changing and my concerns there in a second.
But I will say, and by the way, we have to talk about how the Republican Party is absolutely freaking out about her.
But let's go ahead and begin.
How have you felt about the first few days of the Kamala Harris for President campaign?
Well, for a little bit there, the very early returns from the polls, it didn't necessarily feel amazing.
But then I chose to look at the money that she raised in like 24 hours, which was staggering.
Incredible.
Whatever that was in maybe a little over 24 hours.
To me, that's probably the real pull, right?
They also had mentioned that over half of those donations are from first-time donations or donors.
So that tells you there's a whole new level of interest and enthusiasm for her.
So I would anticipate, and again, it's so crucial in the next week or two that she doesn't stumble at all, right?
She can just nail it perfectly, which is a lot to ask, because she can just do that for the first couple of weeks.
I would anticipate that those polls will continue to coalesce around a five-point lead, and that's where she'll kind of be able to go from heading into the convention.
Have you watched anything with Donald Trump over the past few days since Kamala became the nominee?
Sadly.
He looks ancient, and he sounds like he is from the absolute past, reaching out like the Crypt Keeper, trying to drag everyone backward.
And And I'll tell you something else while we're on it.
Messaging and rhetorically, the Harris campaign has it figured out.
All ready, not just the prosecutor and the felon narrative, which I told everybody that's where that was going to where it was going to go.
And here we are.
But also, we're not going back.
That is a perfect, perfect piece of rhetoric.
And it's working.
I have also started to see Nick.
And one of the things that has been interesting to me When I was reporting on the Trump campaign back in 2016, what I noticed, and I think we talked about this in the past, the Donald Trump campaign was such a clusterfuck of a campaign that they couldn't even get yard signs out to people.
That's how bad and unruly it was.
But what did people do?
They made their own.
Right?
They went ahead and made their own homemade Trump for President signs.
Do you know what I'm seeing everywhere?
I am seeing homemade Kamala Harris signs.
I'm seeing people, like, taking the Biden-Harris sign and putting, like, tape over Biden so it just says Harris.
I'm seeing people chalking their sidewalks.
I'm seeing people put, like, signs on their cars and on their houses.
Like, I'm seeing people repurposing Yes We Can to Yes She Can.
It's really taking off, at least from an enthusiasm standpoint.
It feels completely different from not just the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016, but also the Joe Biden campaign in 2020.
There is an enthusiasm here for Kamala Harris, deserved or not, that looks a hell of a lot more like Obama, as we've been talking about.
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
That is the kind of enthusiasm.
And it's funny because it's probably mostly about her, but then also just the feelings we had about Biden finally just stepping down.
The relief.
Yeah, just releasing that balloon and letting it fly.
Like that was the biggest, probably one of the biggest things that's pushing us here.
And then, you know, again, she's got some work to do.
To introduce yourself and make sure that we feel comfortable about this.
But it's still fascinating to see that the right wasn't really even prepared, even though you and I and everybody else was probably talking for about a month about the possibility of him stepping down or needing to step down, certainly since the debate, and they got caught with their pants down.
They have no idea how to really discuss her and what the points are.
It's really not working yet.
Well, and we'll discuss that in depth.
And by the way, it's not like the Republican Party to get caught with their pants down.
Before we get to it, though, I want to say two things very, very quickly.
One is I want to speak to Democrats out there.
I want to speak to the people within the party.
Look what happens when you don't make decisions out of fear.
Like everybody thought like, well, not everybody.
Of course, a lot of us were calling for Biden to get out of the race.
I said it the day after they needed to get out.
A lot of people were so desperate to keep him in the race.
There's not this will be a mess.
It won't work.
We don't have like the way to do this.
Look what happens when You do the right thing and you don't let fear lead you.
Like, I just want people to take a second and take a breath and let that process, let that wash over them because the Democratic Party is incredibly neurotic.
The second thing that I want to say, Nick, is this.
The VP race is changing daily.
As I said on Tuesday, I think Andy Beshear is the best pick.
I believe that deep down in my heart.
I said Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania.
By the way, you can call me on this.
I slipped because I was exhausted and I said Andy Beshear was the governor of Texas.
He is not.
He's the governor of Kentucky.
Josh Shapiro is the governor of Pennsylvania.
He should take over the DNC.
He should create the plan going forward.
He's an incredible administrator.
He's good at machines.
He's built one in Pennsylvania.
He has some problematic stances and some baggage he would bring with him.
Mark Kelly of Arizona has become the consensus favorite for this pick.
There's a variety of reasons for it to put Arizona into play.
