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--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, July 25th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, people living in homeless encampments are being told to clear out after a recent Supreme Court ruling. The Olympics wrestles with a doping investigation and a bizarre ending to the Argentino-Morocco men's soccer match. But first, President Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office last night on why he pulled out of the presidential race.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So I've decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That's the best way to unite our nation. You 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. And the voice he's chosen is Vice President Harris. Now it's her turn as the presumptive Democratic nominee to choose a running mate of her own. Joining me to talk about what we know so far about her options, how they impact voters, and what role vice presidents have at all is my colleague Gideon Resnick.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Hey, Shamita. Hey, good to be back with you.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yeah. So we're hearing a lot of names being floated, mostly Democrats in swing states or even reddish states. Can you walk us through some of the top names in the running and what they might bring to the ticket?
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Yeah, that's 100% right. So we're hearing about people like Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. Those are two governors from red to reddish states. Some people might quibble with how swingy North Carolina is, but as the New York Times notes, no Democratic presidential or Senate candidate has won the state in more than 15 years. Now, both Beshear and Cooper are perceived as effective without moderating too significantly on some core Democratic issues like abortion rights. We've also seen Beshear using some national TV appearances to contrast himself with Trump's VP selection, J.D. Vance, who is from neighboring Ohio.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Then a couple of other names. There's Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. They represent a pretty obvious play to help win some so-called blue wall states in the Midwest that are really key to any Democratic or Republican presidential victory. We should say for what it's worth, Whitmer has said that she wouldn't accept the role if offered and doesn't intend to leave Michigan. So we'll see on that. And then outside of that list of governors, you have Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. Kelly has the biography that Democratic operatives or Aaron Sorkin maybe would dream up. He's a Navy vet, a former astronaut. He represents a swing state in Arizona in the Senate. He also talks forcefully and personally about gun control as the husband of former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who our listeners will remember was shot in the head at a political event in 2011.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: This is not a fully exhaustive list. It's not to say there won't be someone else that gets selected. But I guess what I would say, Shamita, is don't be surprised if we're chatting here soon about one of these people being selected as the pick.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Right. And now I can't help but point out a lot of this list is very white, very male. Obviously, Harris is a woman of color. How is the campaign thinking about Harris's identity and thinking about it when it comes to choosing a VP?
--:-- Gideon Resnick: I think at a basic level, most campaigns seek quote-unquote balance in the selection of VPs. That can be along experience lines, identity lines, regional lines. But when it comes to a candidate like Harris, who, as you say, would be the first woman of color as a major party nominee, it's hard to imagine the campaign isn't thinking through some questions about how American voters will implicitly or explicitly respond to identity.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: You know, the AP reported that earlier in the week at a closed-door meeting of House Republicans, some lawmakers were urged to avoid attacking Harris on the basis of her ethnicity or gender. And while there's some reporting that there's cautious optimism among Democrats that this is a different political environment than Hillary Clinton was in in 2016, there is still concern about what Harris could face as a potentially history-making candidate.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You know, Gideon, I want to talk a little bit more about what a VP can bring to a ticket. And you sort of alluded to this earlier that we have this belief that a vice presidential pick comes with a huge hometown advantage, right? There's been a lot of talk about that, especially after Trump selected J.D. Vance as his running mate, seeing that as a surefire way for Trump to guarantee that he picks up more voters in the Midwest. How true is this idea that a VP can help a candidate win their home state, for example?
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Yeah, this is so fascinating. And I was sort of looking for something that answered this question. And there's a good political article that talks about this perceived hometown advantage and how there's really little evidence of it. It's written by political scientists who analyze data over the course of many elections, like 2012, when the Republican nominee Mitt Romney selected Paul Ryan as his vice president.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: What they found is that that choice drove up spending and campaign visits to Wisconsin, where Ryan is from, but it had no material impact on the race. And as it turns out, Obama won the state. So in a sense, it seems like the candidates thought it would have a bigger impact potentially than it actually did. The writers of this piece found that maybe unsurprisingly, it the presidential choices that have at least three times the influence on voters as VP choices. And the VP choice really only moves the needle on how a presidential nominee does if they are already really nationally popular or really unpopular. But I think that's pretty rare to see.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: In many cases, like with Vance or conceivably with Harris's pick, you might have a person who is just getting introduced to voters on the national level. Still, if an election is really, really close, maybe just a small difference from the right candidate is all somebody might need.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Gideon Resnick, thanks so much.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Yeah, thank you.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn now to the fallout from the recent Supreme Court decision that allows cities to ban unhoused people from camping in public places. In the weeks since this ruling, which came at the end of June, cities across the country have been revisiting their local laws, with some deciding to take a much tougher stance on homeless encampments. This is a particularly big issue in the western U.S., where tent communities sprung up in huge numbers during the pandemic.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The San Francisco Chronicle zooms in on one of these communities in the Bay Area. Toll Plaza Beach is tucked out of sight near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Over the last few years, a small group of people have been camping there. It started with one man in an RV and grew to about a dozen people, including children.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This week, in what the Chronicle calls the first high-profile sweep of a homeless camp since the Supreme Court's decision, the city of Oakland started evicting the residents of Toll Plaza Beach. Police came with a reportedly calm but clear message. Leave, or within three days, city workers will take everything left behind to storage or the trash.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A representative for Oakland told the Chronicle that city outreach workers have been offering housing and services for several weeks, encouraging people to either accept shelter or help with moving. Some agreed to go. Many decided to find new camping spots.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here's what a man named Frank told the local CBS affiliate. They've offered me a home over in the tiny homes in Peralta in West Oakland, and I'm not going to go there. I was just saying it to the other guys. It's like going to a prison cell.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Andrea Henson, an attorney who's been fighting the evictions, told the local CBS affiliate that many of the people living there are disabled. Every single person here has said that they would like to be housed. Every person out here has told the city about their disabilities.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Chronicle also spoke to the director of a homelessness and housing initiative at UC San Francisco. Her organization found 41 of California adults experiencing homelessness tried and failed at least once to get into a shelter. And because California has a chronic shortage of affordable housing, the median monthly rent is close to... she says sweeps of camps like the one at Toll Plaza Beach really just move people around instead of moving them inside for good.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few pretty out-of-the-ordinary Olympic stories that'll stick with you from the Apple News app. First, we are looking way out at the 2034 Winter Olympics. The host is going to be Salt Lake City. That's no surprise, as it was the only candidate left.
--:-- Shamita Basu: What's interesting is the role doping plays in this. And this is kind of a politics behind the game story. The International Olympic Committee put some very unusual conditions on its deal with Salt Lake City. It says that Utah officials have to lobby the federal government to shut down an FBI investigation into suspected doping by Chinese swimmers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The IOC says that the World Anti-Doping Agency, should be the sole authority on matters like this. And the agency has already accepted China's explanation for why the competitors tested positive. The IOC says if the FBI investigation doesn't get dropped, it might decide to take the game somewhere else.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Meanwhile, the Summer Olympics are getting underway in Paris. France beat the U.S. 3-0 in men's soccer. Elsewhere in that sport, some pretty unusual things were happening. There was a bizarre ending to the men's match between Argentina and Morocco.
--:-- Shamita Basu: After Argentina appeared to score late in the match, fans stormed the pitch and players cleared out. In the confusion, a lot of people thought the game ended in a draw. The Olympic blog said it was over, fans were told to leave the stadium, but it turns out the match wasn't done.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Teams came back hours later to play in a deserted stadium, and officials disallowed Argentina's goal. The result, after all the delay and the drama, Morocco won two won.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, in women's soccer, New Zealand is accusing Canada, the reigning gold medalists, of sending a spy drone over its practice. Police traced the drone back to a Canadian team staffer. Two Canadian staffers have been sent home, and one has been given an eight-month suspended prison sentence.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And soccer's governing body says it will investigate. The two teams play each other today. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Time magazine looks at the state of political violence in America following the assassination attempt on former President Trump. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow. Thank you.
