How Kamala Harris Took Command of the Democratic Party in 48 Hours
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.
Remember a week ago when there was “not enough time” to replace Biden? Clearly that was bullshit but no one wants to talk about it.
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.
anything done by the high priest of a cult is morally correct, this is why they don't care when he rapes or brags about it
They literally made "when the president does it, it's not illegal" the law of the land.
Whatever rapes he does are also "hurting the right people." They want him to hurt their political enemies.
As illegal as someone with 34 felonies?
Conservatives just consider that as political prosecution. That fact is ignored harder than climate change
I’m curious what they thought it was illegal about it?
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.
You could explain it like running mates are a married couple. If one of them dies (drops out), the other one legally has access. Everything goes to them.
Your boss would be correct if a completely different person tried to inherit those campaign funds.
They probably get their news from the typical right wing, Fox style, outlets. They say “is this legal?” And then everybody starts to think questions are reality. I feel bad for your boss. Being that brainwashed.
I dont. Dude is rich as fuck. If he wants to be an idiot, too, at least he's proving its through sheer luck and happenstance instead of any merit.
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 like a 10 minute call every 6 minutes. (I'm guessing it's not a quick, "please endorse me" call but a conversation on why.)
Or 2-3 calls that are a few minutes each with longer ones in the middle
Imagine that room. You can just picture phones being handed around left and right and wild panic in the air.
"This one's been holding for 7 minutes already"
"See if X can take a call at 11:15"
"What timezone are they in?"
I'd say it was well orchestrated mayhem.
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.
The article says she and her team made 100 calls.
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.
They want to confuse things to normalize coups. "Jan 6 was no big deal because Democrats stage coups too."
same with impeachment, since their guy is the only president to be impeached twice.
Yep
I was cool on Harris in the original debates, but holy shit. I am somehow excited again.
Yeah, this is exactly the energy level you need to speedrun a presidential campaign in three months. I hope she keeps it up!
Kamala had the majority of delegates needed for nomination in under 33 hours.
1.3 days.
Step 1. Be vice president.
Step 2: Have all your possible opponents for the nomination enthusiastically endorse you immediately.
Or are we all just forgetting what happened ::checks watch:: three days ago?
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
Agreed, it would be chaos. That's exactly why Trump and team keep trying to suggest there needs to be one, and why Dems should avoid one.
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.
Her store had merch available when he dropped out. This absolutely was coordinated ahead of time.
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.
It's possible to prepare for things and not know when or even if they'll ever go live.
Don't put aside that most if not all people they contacted had basically been waiting for this to finally happen.