Harris resets race
Plus: Harris raised more in 24 hours than any other candidate in U.S. history
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Republicans entered the weekend energized by their convention and unified around their nominee former President Donald Trump. Then President Joe Biden Biden dropped out of the race. Biden entered office with FDR-sized ambitions — just check his Oval Office, where he replaced a portrait of George Washington with one of Franklin D. Roosevelt when he moved in, not to mention his Build Back Better agenda — but facing the possibility of a Carter-style wipeout, he’s passed the baton.
With Biden’s decision to not seek reelection, Democrats have now been unburdened by what has been. Absent the baggage of an old, unpopular sitting president, the potential of Vice President Kamala Harris on top of the ticket has the chance to be something unique: an incumbent who can simultaneously run as a change candidate.
Harris’ campaign smartly dropped the Biden-Harris campaign slogan “Finish the job” for “Let’s win this.” It’s a simple, three-word slogan that at once communicates unity and the organizing principle behind Biden’s winning coalition four years ago: beat Trump. Last week the campaign was about Biden’s age. It isn’t anymore. — Hunter
Harris raised more in 24 hours than any other candidate in U.S. history:
The Harris campaign announced today it raised $81 million in the first 24 hours since Harris entered the race. The sum, which was raised across the Harris campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and their joint fundraising committees, is the most a campaign has reported earning in a single day so far this campaign, and the Harris campaign said it was a record in U.S. history.
“The historic outpouring of support for Vice President Harris represents exactly the kind of grassroots energy and enthusiasm that wins elections,” Harris campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a statement. “There is a groundswell behind Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump is terrified because he knows his divisive, unpopular agenda can’t stand up to the Vice President’s record and vision for the American people.”
How Biden decided to drop out:
Biden’s decision to drop out of the race was so sudden that some of his campaign aides were actively working to reelect him the moment he announced his decision. “I don’t think a soul in Delaware knew,” one Biden official told Politico.
Sick with COVID-19, Biden reportedly reached his decision Saturday night while in Rehoboth Beach, Del., with First Lady Jill Biden, and senior aides Steve Ricchetti, Mike Donilon, Annie Tomasini, and Anthony Bernal. Biden began making calls Sunday morning, speaking separately with Harris, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, and Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon before a call with senior advisors in his campaign and administration at 7:45 a.m. ET. One minute later his letter announcing the news was posted to social media. Biden’s endorsement of Harris came about 30 minutes later.
“Joe Biden has been one of America’s most consequential presidents, as well as a dear friend and partner to me,” Former President Barack Obama said in a statement, a sentiment shared by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who cited Biden’s “legacy of vision, values, and leadership.” Even Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said he respects Biden even if they disagree. “Obviously President Biden and I usually didn’t see eye-to-eye,” Romney said. “But we did find common ground,” on issues including infrastructure and Ukraine.
Trump held his first rally since the assassination attempt:
Trump and his running mate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) appeared for their first time together since last week’s Republican National Convention at an indoor rally at an arena in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Saturday. “I find it hard to believe that a week ago, an assassin tried to take Donald Trump’s life, and now we have got a hell of a crowd in Michigan to welcome him back on the campaign trail,” Vance said.
More than 50 supporters were in line to get in the night before the rally, and the line stretched a mile by Saturday afternoon. Heightened security measures included closed streets, officers and drones on patrol, and metal detectors. Renee White, a Trump supporter who said she’s been to 33 rallies, told the Associated Press it was “the tightest I’ve ever seen the security” at a Trump rally. “We usually can bring in some small bags, but today I had to just leave stuff out there,” she said.
How Trump is feeling about the prospect of facing Harris:
Trump was prepared to run a campaign against Biden on a message that he was strong and Biden weak. Now his campaign will have to write a new strategy. “He really wanted to run against Biden as he saw it an easy glide to win in November,” a source told People. “He will continue with that same attitude, but knows things are different now.”
Trump’s campaign advisers planned for an especially visual campaign that contrasted Trump as strong and energetic against Biden as old and frail. On one wall of their headquarters, Trump’s campaign even plastered that message like a reminder to “Gather” in a suburban kitchen with “Joe Biden is: Weak, Failed and Dishonest” written on the wall. Time to refresh the office decor.
What Harris said about facing Trump:
Harris has inherited Biden’s campaign staff, bank account, and headquarters in Wilmington, Del., and she made her first appearance there as a presidential candidate today. Speaking to campaign staff, Harris delivered her opening argument against Trump. Spoiler alert: it’s cop v. felon, prosecutor v. perpetrator.
“I took on perpetrators of all kinds,” said Harris, a former California attorney general. “Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own game. So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type.” Calling in on speaker phone from Rehoboth Beach, Biden told campaign staff that “the name has changed at the top of the ticket, but the mission hasn’t changed.”
Secret Service director grilled on Capitol Hill:
There was bipartisan agreement today when Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was questioned during a House Oversight Committee hearing about the assassination attempt on Trump: she should resign. During the roughly six-hour hearing, Cheatle called the shooting “the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades” but said she was the “best person to lead the Secret Service at this time.” Committee members disagreed.
After Cheatle said a preliminary report on the shooting wouldn’t be available for 60 days, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called it unacceptable considering we’re in the middle of an “especially concentrated” campaign. “It has been 10 days since an assassination attempt on a former president of the United States,” she said. “Regardless of party, there need to be answers.”
In a letter to Cheatle, Oversight committee chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) and ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) called on her to “resign as Director as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people.” The lawmakers said Cheatle “failed to provide answers to basic questions.”
FLOTUS is heading to Paris for the Olympics:
Dr. Biden is heading to Paris this week to cheer on Team USA. FLOTUS is set to lead the U.S. delegation at the Paris Olympic Opening Ceremony on Friday, and she was also scheduled to co-host a fundraiser in Paris with former U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Tony Gardner and others before her husband dropped out of the race. Biden reposted her husband’s letter announcing he wouldn’t seek reelection on Sunday with the two hearts emoji 💕.
Melania Trump made history at the RNC:
Wearing a power red Christian Dior skirt suit, former First Lady Melania Trump made her first public campaign appearance since 2022 last Thursday on the final day of the Republican National Convention. She also made history as the first spouse of a nominee not to speak at the convention in more than 30 years, since Barbara Bush started the tradition.
Pols remember Sheila Jackson Lee:
The family of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said Friday she passed away at the age of 74. Lee, who represented Texas’ 18 congressional district in the U.S. House since being elected in 1994, said last month she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Biden called Lee “a great American” who was “unrelenting in her leadership,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said she was “an accomplished legislator, passionate public servant, loving mentor and wonderful friend,” and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said she was a “fierce advocate for the Houston community.”
Lee was an early critic of the Iraq War, an author of the reauthorized Violence Against Women Act, and she introduced legislation that made Juneteenth a federal holiday. In 2014, she was won the superlatives “showhorse” and “meanest” in Washingtonian’s list of the best and worst of Congress.
🇺🇸 LeBron James has been voted by his fellow Olympians to be the Team USA flag-bearer at the opening ceremony at the Paris Games. James is the first men's basketball player to carry the flag for Team USA. [ESPN]
💻 CrowdStrike CEO called to testify to Congress over cybersecurity’s firm role in global tech outage. U.S. House leaders are calling on CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz to testify to Congress about the cybersecurity company’s role in sparking the widespread tech outage that grounded flights, knocked banks, and hospital systems offline, and affected services around the world Friday. [Associated Press]
🍪 Google cancels plans to kill off cookies for advertisers. The company said that through testing, it realized the transition to kill off third-party cookies required “significant work by many participants” and would impact publishers, advertisers, and virtually anyone involved in online advertising. [CNBC]
📈 Streaming hits an all-time high in June. Streaming accounted for 40.3% of all TV usage in the U.S. in June, marking the highest proportion of streaming viewership ever recorded in the three years Nielsen began tracking. [Variety]
📺 Your Hulu account is about to look a lot like Netflix. Disney will reportedly start to roll out Netflix-style personalization features to its streaming platforms. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? [Fast Company]
Eminem just knocked Taylor Swift off No. 1 on the albums chart:
Eminem’s new album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) debuted at No. 1 on this week’s Billboard 200 album chart, ending Taylor Swift’s 12-week run at No. 1 with The Tortured Poets Department. It’s Eminem’s 11th No. 1 album and first since 2020’s Music to be Murdered To. Eminem now ties Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, and the artist formerly known as Kanye West for the fifth-most No. 1 albums on Billboard’s chart.
Halsey confirms she got Britney’s blessing before sampling “Lucky”:
Responding to a fan question on X, Halsey said “of course” she involved Britney Spears in her decision to sample Spears’ 2000 hit “Lucky” for a forthcoming song. “I wouldn’t dream of doing it without her blessing.” Halsey’s “Lucky” will be released Friday.
This 50 Cent song got a streaming boost since the Trump shooting:
Streams of 50 Cent’s “Many Men (Wish Death)” are up 250% from last week after people began associating the song online with the assassination attempt against Trump. The track, from 50’s debut studio album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ in 2003, is about how many men wish death upon him and it came out after 50 was shot nine times in 2000. 50 posted an image of Trump’s head on the Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album cover and wrote, “Trump gets shot and now I’m trending.”
This Missy Elliott song just became the first hip-hop song in history to be beamed into space:
NASA sent Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” 158 million miles through space to Venus. The agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California sent the song as a transmission via its Deep Space Network, or DSN, earlier this month, and it took 14 minutes to make the trip. It’s the second song sent via DSN following the Beatles’ “Across the Universe,” which was sent into deep space in 2008.
NASA said Elliott chose where she wanted her song to be sent. “I chose Venus because it symbolizes strength, beauty, and empowerment and I am so humbled to have the opportunity to share my art and my message with the universe!” the rapper said in a statement.
Donald Glover is retiring Childish Gambino:
With the release of his new album Band Stone & the New World, Donald Glover said he’ll soon retire his rap moniker Childish Gambino. The name, which Glover came up with using a Wu-Tang Clan name generator, was used to release songs like “Heartbeat,” “Redbone,” and the No. 1 hit “This Is America.” During his appearance on Hot Ones, Glover said, “I always knew Childish Gambino was like a character, and on some level I wanted it to end.”
Chappell Roan pumps the brakes on fame:
Citing people who have “started to be freaks” by following her, knowing where her parents live, and where her sister works, Chappell Roan says she’s “pumped the brakes on, honestly, anything to make me more known.” Speaking on the Comment Section podcast, the singer said, “This is the time when a few years ago when I said that if [there were] stalker vibes or my family was in danger, I would quit. And we’re there. We’re there!”
Brendan Fraser to play Eisenhower:
Oscar-winning actor Brendan Fraser is set to play America’s 34th president. Fraser has been cast as Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower in the upcoming Pressure, about the lead up to the D-Day invasion. The film will be directed by Anthony Maras and shooting begins in September in the U.K., according to Deadline.
Supreme has been sold to the maker of Ray-Ban:
Supreme’s parent company VF Corporation announced last week it’s selling the streetwear brand for $1.5 billion to EssilorLuxottica, the maker of Oakley and Ray-Ban. EssilorLuxottica executives Francesco Milleri and Paul du Saillant said Supreme offers their company “a direct connection to new audiences, languages and creativity,” and they also got hypebeast brand for a steal of a deal; VF bought Supreme for $2.1 billion in 2020.
Thanks for reading! See you next week. ⭐