--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Michelle Martin: President Biden has quit the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. So now, how will the Democrats decide on a brand new presidential ticket?
--:-- A Martinez: That's right, Michelle. And we're here to break it down for you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: I'm Michelle Martin. That's A. Martinez. And this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Tamara Keith: With weeks to go before the convention in Chicago, Harris is now at the top of the ticket and winning over some voters. I feel energized about Harris and the chance that we can only honestly go up from here.
--:-- Michelle Martin: How does she perform against Trump?
--:-- Tamara Keith: And the Trump campaign has wasted no time switching gears to attack the VP's record.
--:-- A Martinez: 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 the check?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Where does she pose the biggest threat?
--:-- Tamara Keith: Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.
--:-- Announcer: This message comes from NPR sponsor Adobe. Introducing the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio, now with AI-powered PDF spaces.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Need to turn 100 pages of market research into five insights with a click? Templates for a sales proposal that'll close that deal? Or an AI specialist to tailor the tone of your market report? You can do all that with the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio.
--:-- A Martinez: Learn more at adobe.com slash do that with Acrobat.
--:-- Michelle Martin: President Biden said yesterday he is giving up the Democratic nomination and dropping out of the race for re-election.
--:-- Tamara Keith: 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.
--:-- Mara Liason: We're joined now by NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, who is in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where Biden has been recovering from COVID.
--:-- Tamara Keith: Also with us is NPR national political correspondent Mara Liason.
--:-- Mara Liason: 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: 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.
--:-- Mara Liason: She added that she will do everything in her power to unite the Democratic Party and unite the nation to defeat Donald Trump.
--:-- Tamara Keith: 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.
--:-- Mara Liason: 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.
--:-- Tamara Keith: 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.
--:-- Mara Liason: But in their statements praising Biden's decision, fellow Californian Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama notably didn't explicitly endorse Harris.
--:-- Tamara Keith: In a meeting with campaign staff yesterday after Biden announcement Jen O Dillon who led Biden reelection effort told staff that they still have a job and they are quickly pivoting to be full steam ahead behind Vice President Biden.
--:-- Mara Liason: The branding and website have already changed.
--:-- Tamara Keith: 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.
--:-- Mara Liason: Just one more note. Last night, the Democratic fundraising platform, ActBlue, announced that the Harris presidential campaign had raised more than $46 million from grassroots donors in the hours since Biden endorsed her. That is a money bomb.
--:-- Tamara Keith: Marl Eisen, then what is the sense among Democrats about Harris's chances?
--:-- Marl Eisen: Well, I think that they are cautiously optimistic, but we just don't have a lot of evidence here.
--:-- Tamara Keith: Our latest NPR poll, NPR Marist PBS poll, showed that she runs nationally against Trump about the same as Biden does.
--:-- Mara Liason: What we don't have are any public battleground polls to see how she does.
--:-- Tamara Keith: 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.
--:-- Mara Liason: They just want something that doesn't look like a coronation.
--:-- Tamara Keith: 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?
--:-- Mara Liason: Well, this was a real process. You know, this is a hard thing. Don't forget, 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.
--:-- Tamara Keith: 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.
--:-- Mara Liason: 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.
--:-- Tamara Keith: And he wanted to get out before the trickle of Democrats calling for him to get out turned into a tidal wave.
--:-- Mara Liason: So Tamara, how much do voters know about Kamala Harris?
--:-- Tamara Keith: Like all vice presidents, she has been at many points pretty invisible and struggled to carve out her own political identity.
--:-- Mara Liason: I was recently in North Carolina talking to voters who were like, where is she and what is she doing?
--:-- Tamara Keith: But the reality is that she's been on dozens of foreign trips and became a leading voice for the administration on abortion.
--:-- Mara Liason: But a lot of people don't really feel like they know her aside from being a first.
--:-- Tamara Keith: And what they do know may be through the lens of Republican attacks on her handling of immigration and even her laughter.
--:-- Mara Liason: The hits are already coming, some about policy, and some that lean on well-worn tropes about black women.
--:-- Tamara Keith: There are Democratic outside groups, including Emily's List. I spoke with them yesterday, planning to spend millions of dollars to make sure voters feel comfortable with Harris as president.
--:-- Mara Liason: OK, but here we go, because Democrats have less than a month before their convention in Chicago.
--:-- Tamara Keith: 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?
--:-- Mara Liason: 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.
--:-- Tamara Keith: This is a group of elected Democrats party activists and volunteers who will decide
--:-- Mara Liason: 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.
--:-- Tamara Keith: 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.
--:-- Mara Liason: Interestingly, there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution about how nominees are chosen.
--:-- Tamara Keith: 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.
--:-- Mara Liason: I do like reality TV. I am a big fan of that.
--:-- Tamara Keith: What about your thoughts on what this process will involve next?
--:-- Mara Liason: Well, the big question is if anyone stands up to run against her.
--:-- Tamara Keith: 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.
--:-- Mara Liason: 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 one of this process, which is party unity.
--:-- Tamara Keith: And that's really important.
--:-- Mara Liason: But the other big question is, can Kamala Harris rise to the occasion?
--:-- Tamara Keith: One top Democrat said to me that no politician in modern times has ever been asked to rise to the occasion like this.
--:-- Mara Liason: She was not a great candidate in 2020. She dropped out before any votes were cast.
--:-- Tamara Keith: 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.
--:-- Mara Liason: One more thing for both of you really quick. I mean, it's a lot of upheaval in the Democratic Party.
--:-- Tamara Keith: Mara, let's start with you on that.
--:-- Mara Liason: Yeah, I think they're feeling a big sense of relief and a lot of trepidation about what's going to happen next.
--:-- Tamara Keith: Tam, what about you?
--:-- Mara Liason: 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.
--:-- Tamara Keith: I heard from Democratic campaign volunteers who are ready to get to work for their new future nominee.
--:-- Mara Liason: That's NPR's Tamara Keith and NPR's Mara Lison. Thanks to you both.
--:-- Tamara Keith: Thanks to you both.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Now for a look at how President Trump and the Republicans are going at Vice President Harris.
--:-- A Martinez: Yes, Harris still has to secure the Democratic Party's nomination, but Republicans are already running as if she has.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: They are trying to tie her to Biden's biggest challenges, including immigration and inflation.
--:-- Michelle Martin: White House correspondent Franco Ordonez, who is covering the Trump campaign, is here to talk about strategy.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: So, Franco, what was the response from Trump's camp about Biden stepping down?
--:-- Michelle Martin: I mean, hey, 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.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: But the campaign did quickly pivot to Harris, calling her the, quote, enabler in chief.
--:-- Michelle Martin: I mean, they're basically accusing her of concealing Biden's physical and mental fitness issues.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: They 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.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Yeah the nicknames came quickly as they always seem to do
--:-- Franco Ordonez: You were in Grand Rapids where Trump held his first rally with his new running mate, J.D. Vance.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That was before the announcement, but they already were attacking Kamala Harris.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Yeah, they were kind of workshopping attacks.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Vance particularly wasted no time going after Harris, even alluding to the idea that she hasn't worked really hard, while he has.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: 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?
--:-- Michelle Martin: You know, and he accused Harris of being Biden's, quote, border czar during record-breaking migration.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: So tell us about that, because, I mean, immigration has been a part of Harris's portfolio in the White House.
--:-- Michelle Martin: 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.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: She actually was never specifically appointed to fixing the border like a czar would, I guess.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But that hasn't stopped Republicans from attacking her on the border.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: I mean, it's really become a Republican talking point.
--:-- Michelle Martin: The Republican National Committee actually also put out a video Sunday attacking her.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: And it started like this. Warning, the following may upset liberals who don't want voters to know the truth about Kamala Harris.
--:-- Michelle Martin: You know, they used selective cuts and they just went on the attack on Harris over immigration.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: And they charged that she neglected the border. Again, not necessarily her area.
--:-- Michelle Martin: All right. So let's just say it is Kamala Harris going up against Donald Trump.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Where would she pose the biggest threat to the Trump campaign?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Yeah, I mean, publicly, the campaign says that they're not worried, that it's the same issues and the same policies.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: But it's really not that simple. I mean, they're not the same person. They have different strengths and weaknesses.
--:-- Michelle Martin: 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.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: 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.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And she polls better with young voters and voters of color.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Plus, Harris might perform better with suburban women.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And all these groups, all these groups are going to be very critical in this year's coming election.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: All right, that's NPR's Franco Ordonez.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Thanks, A.
--:-- A Martinez: And that's Up First for Monday, July 22nd.
--:-- Michelle Martin: I'm Amy Martinez.
--:-- A Martinez: And I'm Michelle Martin.
--:-- Michelle Martin: How about giving a listen to Consider This from NPR?
--:-- A Martinez: Here on Up First, we give you three big stories to start the day. or consider this. Colleagues take a different approach. They dig into a single news story and what it means to you in just 15 minutes.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- A Martinez: Today's episode of Up First was edited by Christian Dev Kalimor, Megan Pratz, Jenea Williams, and Alice Wolfley.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Was produced by Ziat Butch, Destiny Adams, and Milton Guevara.
--:-- A Martinez: We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And our technical director is Zac Coleman.
--:-- A Martinez: Join us again tomorrow.
--:-- Michelle Martin: You
