She worked the phones. Her team worked the delegates. When it was over, she had quickly locked down the nomination in a “well-orchestrated cascade,” as one party leader put it.
She worked the phones. Her team worked the delegates. When it was over, she had quickly locked down the nomination in a “well-orchestrated cascade,” as one party leader put it.
Late on Sunday morning, Vice President Kamala Harris summoned a small clutch of her closest advisers and allies to the Naval Observatory, where she lives and works, with little notice and even less information.
President Biden had informed Ms. Harris earlier that morning that he was withdrawing from the race. The vice president had assembled her team so that the exact moment Mr. Biden formally quit, at 1:46 p.m. — one minute after the president had informed his own senior staff — they were ready to go.
Time was of the essence. A sprawling call list of the most important Democrats to reach had been prepared in advance, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. The vice president, in sneakers and a sweatshirt, began methodically dialing Democratic power brokers.
...
The blitz demonstrated exactly the kind of vigor and energy that Mr. Biden had lacked in recent weeks. Mr. Biden had reportedly made 20 calls to congressional Democrats in the first 10 or so days after the debate, while his candidacy hung in the balance. Ms. Harris made 100 calls in 10 hours.
At the same time that Ms. Harris was dialing, a new whip operation was set up to wrangle delegates who will ultimately select the nominee, integrating her team and the pre-existing Biden-Harris campaign’s delegate operation.
Such a stark contrast. For so long Biden's campaign just didn't seem to be fighting for anything, they kinda coasted and kept their heads down so as not to cause a stir or trigger any kind of controversy. Now Harris has cranked things up to eleven and is pounding Trump/Vance into the dirt with media blitzes amid seamless coordination with the entire Democratic Party. If she governs the way she's handled this campaign, then bring it the fuck on.
Jon Stewart had a really good analysis of that on his podcast. Not only that, the show he did right before Biden stepped aside included a guy from CNN who made exactly that argument. "It's too late. There's nothing we can do because it's too complicated." He looked like an idiot during that show because the other guests obliterated every argument he tried to throw out, and sure enough the day Biden withdrew he was invited back to CNN to do the "this is a good opportunity to move forward" whiplash. I'll admit I was fully on the "It's Biden, stop complaining" train originally, but his debate performance took the floor right out from under my feet. Anyone still arguing to keep him in after that performance was participating in a different reality than the one the rest of us live in.
There would not have been time for a contested convention and the usual circular firing squad that Democrats are known for. It's nothing short of a miracle that we seem to have avoided that.
No she didn't! My boss swears she dropped out already! Cause "umm ackshually its illegal". Thats how scared they are of her, they can't look at reality right now.
It would be cooler if your boss could notice illegal things when they are insurrections, stealing boxes of classified documents, extorting foreign countries, oh, and raping women.
He insisted her having access to the Biden-Harris campaign funds was illegal so they shut down the campaign. Not even joking. I even searched it in front of him, nothing came up but her 2020 stuff, and he still insisted.
100 calls in 10 hours is solid work and I would imagine entirely exhausting.
One summer while in college I worked in a call centre. Worst job of my life so be kind to call centre workers folks. If I remember correctly we would rack up around 140 calls in a day but many of those were very short and obviously I didn't have a presidential nomination on the line. :)
That's how it goes at my job. Most calls are around 5 minutes, the good ones are 2 to 3 and the worst ones run 15ish. Couple times a year I'll get the 40 minute ones that make me wanna rope.
I wonder if Biden's campaigning chops were weakened not just by his age, but by the fact he seldom actually had to campaign very much, just due to his circumstances.
The current MAGAchud talking point is that Democrats “staged a coup” to get rid of Biden, which is probably illegal or something (no it doesn’t make any fucking sense - these are trump core supporters, they’re not geniuses).
Anyway, the NYT is aware of that. Please read this otherwise unremarkable article in that light.
I mean, when the calls initially started for Biden to resign, she probably had a plan in place. Hell, back when Biden mentioned that he may be a one-term president years back, Harris probably had a plan in place to ramp things up. It's just that this plan got used a little sooner than others expected.
Yeah I'm 100% behind Harris, so I don't really care, but this is a puff piece. There's no way she found out the day of, there was too many ads and too much merch ready to go.
Yeah, I was pissed we didn't have a primary this year but somehow I am so damn excited for Harris. I feel like it would have been worse to try to have a primary now