A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Biden said yesterday he is giving up the Democratic nomination and dropping out of the race for reelection.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his choice to take over the top of the Democratic ticket. But it's unclear how the party will now proceed.
MARTÍNEZ: We're joined now by NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, who is in Rehoboth Beach, Del., where Biden has been recovering from COVID. Also with us is NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson. All right, Tam, let's start off with you. You're leading off here. President Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the nominee, so what's Harris plan to do with that endorsement?
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Well, in a statement, Harris said that she is honored that President Biden endorsed her and that it is her intention to earn and win the nomination. She added that she will do everything in her power to unite the Democratic Party and unite the nation to defeat Donald Trump. And according to a person familiar with her day, Harris worked the phones for more than 10 hours on Sunday, calling Democratic Party leaders and talking about her plans. At this point, we don't know yet if anyone will be able to get enough support from Democratic convention delegates to make this a real race. So far, we have seen a ton of endorsements pour in for Harris, including members of Congress, entire state delegations and some of the big name Democrats who had previously been mentioned as possible candidates.
But in their statements praising Biden's decision, fellow Californian Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama notably didn't explicitly endorse Harris. In a meeting with campaign staff yesterday after Biden's announcement, Jen O'Malley Dillon, who's led Biden's reelection effort, told staff that they still have a job. And they are quickly pivoting to be full steam ahead behind Vice President Biden. The branding and website have already changed. So much of their campaign was focused on beating Trump, trying to make it a referendum on him that, O'Malley Dillon said, they don't need to reinvent the wheel in litigating the case to the American public.
Just one more note. Last night, the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue announced that the Harris presidential campaign had raised more than $46,000,000 from grassroots donors in the hours since Biden endorsed her That is a money bomb.
MARTÍNEZ: Mara Liasson, then what is the sense among Democrats about Harris' chances?
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Well, I think that they are cautiously optimistic, but we just don't have a lot of evidence here. Our latest NPR poll, NPR/ Marist/PBS poll, showed that she runs nationally against Trump about the same as Biden does. What we don't have are any public battleground polls to see how she does. But Democrats are cautiously optimistic. Even Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi who haven't yet endorsed her and are talking about some kind of an open process, that doesn't mean that they're against Kamala. They just want something that doesn't look like a coronation.
MARTÍNEZ: Mara, on Friday, the Biden campaign was insistent that they were staying in it until the race was over. So what changed? What's the timeline?
LIASSON: Well, this was a real process. You know, this is a hard thing. Don't forget...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
LIASSON: This is a politician, Joe Biden, whose political identity, his origin story is of someone who's always counted out and always proves his critics wrong. He started out very defiant. He was going to stay in the race. He sounded like he was in denial about what the polls showed, but in the end, he was not deluded. And his aides came to him, showed him internal polling that his standing in battleground states was collapsing. And he wanted to get out before the trickle of Democrats calling for him to get out turned into a tidal wave.
MARTÍNEZ: So, Tamara, how much do voters know about Kamala Harris?
KEITH: Like all vice presidents, she has been, at many points, pretty invisible and struggled to carve out her own political identity. I was recently in North Carolina talking to voters who were like, where is she and what is she doing? But the reality is that she's been on dozens of foreign trips and became a leading voice for the administration on abortion. But a lot of people don't really feel like they know her aside from being a first. And what they do know may be through the lens of Republican attacks on her handling of immigration and even her laughter. The hits are already coming, some about policy and some that lean on well-worn tropes about Black women. There are Democratic outside groups, including EMILYs List - I spoke with them yesterday - planning to spend millions of dollars to make sure voters feel comfortable with Harris as president.
MARTÍNEZ: OK but here we go, because Democrats have less than a month before their convention in Chicago. So, Tamara, can you walk us through exactly what is going to happen next? I mean, what's the process like? What will it involve?
KEITH: We are headed for a highly condensed primary campaign where the only voters are the 4,700 or so delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. This is a group of elected Democrats, party activists and volunteers who will decide. And if they haven't coalesced behind a candidate by the start of the convention, it could go through multiple rounds of voting until a candidate gets the majority. And in the meantime, one expert on the process told me it will be like reality TV that you've never seen before, at least not since 1968, that convention. Interestingly, there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution about how nominees are chosen. This is a party process, which feels weird given that millions of people voted in the primary. But the rules are quite clear, even if Republicans and former President Trump are trying to make it sound nefarious.
MARTÍNEZ: I do like reality TV. I am a big fan of that. Mara, what about your thoughts on what this process will involve next?
LIASSON: Well, the big question is if anyone stands up to run against her. There's going to be tremendous pressure on Democrats who want to preserve their, quote, "viability in the system," as Bill Clinton said once, to not do that. The outpouring of endorsements show you that Democrats at least - and the lack of a serious challenger shows you that at least Democrats seem to be completing Step 1 of this process, which is party unity. And that's really important. But the other big question is, can Kamala Harris rise to the occasion? One top Democrat said to me that no politician in modern times has ever been asked to rise to the occasion like this. She was not a great candidate in 2020. She dropped out before any votes were cast. But I think Democrats do feel this is their last best hope to defeat Trump or, barring that, to at least flip the House and stop a complete Trump takeover of the government.
MARTÍNEZ: One more thing for both of you really quick. I mean, it's been a lot of upheaval in the Democratic Party. You have any sense of how Democrats are feeling in this moment? Mara, let's start with you on that.
LIASSON: Yeah, I think they're feeling a big sense of relief and a lot of trepidation about what's going to happen next.
MARTÍNEZ: Tam, what about you?
KEITH: Just look at those fundraising numbers. They are off the charts, which means there was a lot of pent up demand from Democrats to find something to get excited about, and they're going to get excited about this. I heard from Democratic campaign volunteers who are ready to get to work for their new future nominee.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Tamara Keith and NPR's Mara Liasson. Thanks to you both.
LIASSON: Thank you.
KEITH: You're welcome.
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MARTÍNEZ: Now for a look at how President Trump and the Republicans are going at Vice President Harris.
MARTIN: Yes, Harris still has to secure the Democratic Party's nomination, but Republicans are already running as if she has. They're trying to tie her to Biden's biggest challenges, including immigration and inflation.
MARTÍNEZ: White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez, who is covering the Trump campaign, is here to talk about strategy. So, Franco, what was the response from Trump's camp about Biden stepping down?
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: I mean, A, they say it doesn't matter. I mean, soon after Biden dropped out, Trump was already on his Truth Social saying he doesn't care who he faces on the left, saying they're just more of the same. But the campaign did quickly pivot to Harris, calling her the, quote, "enabler in chief." I mean, they're basically accusing her of concealing Biden's physical and mental freshness issues. They're looking to paint Harris and Biden as one, you know, saying, quote, there is "no difference" between the two and that she didn't do anything when she could about inflation and when the border was in chaos.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, the nicknames came (laughter) quickly, as they always seemed to do. You were in Grand Rapids, where Trump held his first rally with his new running mate, J.D. Vance. That was before the announcement, but they already were attacking Kamala Harris.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, they were kind of workshopping attacks. Vance particularly wasted no time going after Harris, even alluding to the idea that she hasn't worked really hard while he has.
J D VANCE: Well, I don't know, Kamala, I did serve in the United States Marine Corps and build a business. What the hell have you done other than collect a check?
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ORDOÑEZ: You know, and he accused Harris of being Biden's, quote, "border czar" during record-breaking migration.
MARTÍNEZ: So tell us about that because, I mean, immigration has been a part of Harris' portfolio in the White House.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, I mean, while she was tasked with leading efforts to address the root causes of migration - that's basically working with Latin American governments - she actually was never specifically appointed to fixing the border, like a czar would, I guess. But that hasn't stopped Republicans from attacking her on the border. I mean, it's really become a Republican talking point. The Republican National Committee actually also put out a video Sunday attacking her, and it started like this.
(SOUNDBITE OF POLITICAL AD, "THE TRUTH ABOUT KAMALA HARRIS")
UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: Warning - the following may upset liberals who don't want voters to know the truth about Kamala Harris.
ORDOÑEZ: You know, they used selective cuts, and they just went on the attack on Harris over immigration. And they charge that she neglected the border - again, not necessarily her area.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, so let's just say it is Kamala Harris going up against Donald Trump. Where would she pose the biggest threat to the Trump campaign?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, I mean, publicly, the campaign says that they're not worried, that it's the same issues and the same policies. But it's really not that simple. I mean, they're not the same person. They have different strengths and weaknesses. The Trump campaign has spent a lot of resources targeting Biden's mental acuity, and that attack line just isn't going to work against Harris in the same way, who is nearly two decades younger than Trump. You know, and as Tamara just said, Harris is also a leading voice for Democrats on abortion, a huge issue for voters and a big vulnerability for Trump, and she polls better with young voters and voters of color. Plus, Harris might perform better with suburban women. And all these groups - all these groups - are going to be very critical in this year's coming election.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, that's NPR's Franco Ordoñez. Thank you very much for bringing us this.
ORDOÑEZ: Thanks, A. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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