Welcome to The Campaign Moment, your guide to the biggest moments in the 2024 election — now with more Baba Booey.
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The big moment
After much hand-wringing about Vice President Kamala Harris’s lack of unscripted interviews since joining the 2024 race at the top of the ticket, Harris has in recent days undertaken a veritable media blitz. She’s gone on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast and on Howard Stern’s show, on “The View” and on Stephen Colbert’s late-night show.
A few reflections on the key moments, what she said, and what we learned.
Harris’s answer on Biden could be a problem
Even while talking to generally sympathetic hosts in most of these interviews, Harris reinforced the idea that she can create problems for herself in these unscripted settings. The primary example may be her answer about President Joe Biden.
Asked on “The View” what she might have done differently from Biden, Harris responded: “There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of — and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact.”
That’s undoubtedly not how her campaign drew it up.
It’s not an easy question, given that Harris is still serving with Biden. But it’s also clear she needs to carve out some distance between herself and Biden, given how unpopular he is. And there’s a way to massage it without giving Republicans such a potent video clip (a clip at least one House Republican is already using in an ad). For instance, at the debate last month, Harris said, “Clearly, I am not Joe Biden, and I am certainly not Donald Trump. And what I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country.”
Harris seemed to recognize that stumble Tuesday, emphasizing later in the show that unlike Biden she would appoint a Republican to her Cabinet.
Harris’s “60 Minutes” interview also featured plenty of pressing from host Bill Whitaker. Harris resisted and talked around his questions, or offered some of those wordy, convoluted answers Republicans have attacked her for — particularly on Israel.
Her big pitch: Strength
This was a theme running through her appearances, as Harris perhaps sought to overcome questions about whether the country is prepared to elect a woman as president:
On “Call Her Daddy,” Harris responded to a reminder that Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) questioned Harris’s humility by subtly pointing to Harris’s lack of biological children: “I don’t think she understands that, there are a whole lot of women out here who, one, are not aspiring to be humble,” Harris said.
On Stern’s show, Harris asserted that she was proud of putting “a lot of people in jail” and said of threats she faced as a prosecutor, “I refuse to live in fear of the bad guys.”
On “60 Minutes,” she disclosed that the gun she owns is a Glock — a stereotypically gritty firearm. (Harris previously told Oprah Winfrey, “If somebody breaks into my house, they’re getting shot.”)
Harris also made a direct play for the mantle of strength in the Stern interview.
“Ultimately, I do believe that this is an election that is about strength versus weakness, and weakness as projected by someone who puts himself in front of the American people and does not have the strength to stand in defense of their needs, their dreams, their desires …” Harris said, while also pitching herself as stronger on national security and foreign policy.
Her campaign soon promoted that segment of the interview.
Her appearances reflected the changing media paradigm
Rarely have we seen a blitz that is so strategically and transparently geared toward specific constituencies and reaching large audiences, including by using nontraditional forums.
The “60 Minutes” and Colbert appearances are par-for-the-course for a presidential candidate, with the former being the long-running highest-ranked news show. But “Call Her Daddy” — an often raunchy, sex-themed show — is a massively popular and generally apolitical show with a huge audience among young women (it’s Spotify’s most popular podcast among women). “The View” was obviously about appealing to women, specifically. And the Stern show, like “Call Her Daddy,” gave Harris an avenue to lots of less-engaged voters.
The potential downside of some of these shows is Harris associating herself with their often-vulgar content. But that ship probably sailed in our politics a long time ago; Trump was a regular guest on Stern’s show for years.
This could put pressure on Trump to branch out
While there’s been plenty of talk about Harris’s not doing interviews, her recent foray might cause Republicans and the Trump campaign to rethink their own media strategy.
Harris has given few interviews, but she is now speaking to shows that could reach lots of casual and undecided voters. Trump … is not really doing that right now. His media-interview diet is heavier, but it’s focused on preaching to the choir, going on Fox News and Newsmax and the like. (He did go on young-male influencers Theo Von’s and Adin Ross’s popular shows in August.) Trump also turned down the forum “60 Minutes” offered because he didn’t want to be fact-checked.
That decision broke a tradition for major-party presidential candidates dating back to 1968.
It’s clear Trump is much more comfortable at rallies and with friendly interviewers; he makes so many false claims that branching out and actually being pressed is not a recipe for success. But there would seem to be a premium on speaking to the broader electorate with undecided voters looming so large late in the campaign.
And Harris basically challenged him to do that. Her answer on strength came on a show Trump used to frequent and, after Stern noted Trump had turned down “60 Minutes.”
A brief moment on hurricane politics
The big national story right now is, of course, Hurricane Milton. Our thoughts go out to the Floridians who will soon be struck by the this hurricane in Florida, as well as to those still recovering from Hurricane Helene in Georgia, North Carolina and other states.
It seems crass to talk about politics at a moment like this. But the campaigns and government officials are already confronting what this means for the vote in 2024 to have a pair of hurricanes strike three key states so late in a presidential election — a situation with little if any precedent. North Carolina officials have quickly moved to ease voting changes, for example.
On Tuesday, I looked at the history of how hurricanes can affect voting. Here are a few key points:
Hurricanes can lead to a drop in turnout: Hurricane Katrina in 2005 led to more than a 10 percent drop in turnout in New Orleans eight months later, as half the city was still displaced. Hurricane Michael late in the 2018 election led to a 7 percent drop in turnout in the affected areas of Florida’s panhandle, amid confusion about polling places.
That’s particularly problematic for Trump, given the areas hard-hit by Helene tend to be Republican-leaning. Trump addressed this Monday night, saying, “I believe they’re going to go out and vote if they have to crawl to a voting booth. He added that “we’re trying to make it convenient for them to [vote], but they just lost their house.”
A hurricane response can also affect views of incumbents. That effect appeared to help Barack Obama in 2012 after Superstorm Sandy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in 2022 after Hurricane Ian, while it hurt the Republican Party in 2006 (after Katrina) and George H.W. Bush in 1992 after Hurricane Andrew.
Stay tuned. Politics are not the primary concern right now. But these are crucial states — as The Post’s polling averages demonstrate — in a 2024 election which has major consequences for the country, and these hurricanes have thrown everyone a major late curveball.
A pair of momentous poll numbers
2 percent and 5 percent
Those are Harris’s edges on Trump in a New York Times/Siena College poll when it comes to which of the two candidates was more likely to “help you personally” and “help people like you,” respectively.
While those aren’t big gaps, this is the kind of question that has normally favored Trump. A Times/Siena poll just last month showed voters in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina said by an 11-point margin that Trump’s policies would help them rather than hurt them, but by a five-point margin that Harris’s policies would hurt them.
Even in the new national poll, voters said by 12 points that Trump’s policies as president had helped rather than hurt them, and by 20 points that President Joe Biden’s policies had done more to hurt them.
Why this is significant: There are few things that are as immediate a concern for voters as whether a candidate would help or hurt them. And Trump’s advantages on questions like this have helped him overcome concerns about his character. If Harris can truly erase this deficit, that could be huge for her.
Take a moment to read:
“Trump secretly sent covid tests to Putin during 2020 shortage, new book says” (Washington Post)
“The fight for the House and Senate: Where things stand” (Washington Post)
“Local Republicans decry hurricane falsehoods — as Trump spreads them” (Washington Post)
“The latest union snub for Harris and Walz underscores a bigger problem for their campaign” (Politico)
“How Mike Johnson is navigating Trump — and his first real campaign” (Politico)
“The Most Dramatic Shift in U.S. Public Opinion” (Atlantic)