Kamala goes full Country Over Party
Plus: Trump headlines Coachella
Politics in the front, pop culture in the back. Subscribe to Whig, a newsletter by Hunter Schwarz:
Don’t say Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t trying to pitch the widest possible tent to beat former President Donald Trump. With three weeks to Election Day, Harris continues her unprecedented outreach to the center and center right.
Welcome to today’s issue of Whig. Read to the end for Cher’s performance at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion show. — Hunter
Top headlines:
⛈️ 92 people still missing in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, governor says. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper provided the update at a Tuesday press conference alongside officials from the state's emergency management, the National Guard, the public safety department, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. [NBC News]
🛬 JPMorgan calls it: the U.S. economy has made a soft landing. The biggest bank in the country on Friday said the U.S. economy remains strong for both consumers and big companies, a sign that the Federal Reserve may have achieved the much-discussed soft landing with lower inflation and healthy growth. [Wall Street Journal]
⚡ Google is going nuclear to power its A.I. energy needs. Alphabet’s Google said on Monday it signed the world’s first corporate agreement to buy power from multiple small modular reactors as the technology company looks to meet electricity demand from artificial intelligence. [Fast Company]
👽 NASA launches spacecraft to gauge if Jupiter's moon Europa can host life. The robotic solar-powered probe is due to enter orbit around Jupiter in 2030 after journeying about 1.8 billion miles in 5-1/2 years and will focus on the large subsurface ocean believed to be lurking beneath the thick outer shell of ice on Jupiter’s moon Europa. [Reuters]
Kamala goes full Country Over Party:
After saying she’d name a Republican to her cabinet, Harris continued her outreach to out-partisans last Friday at a “Country Over Party” event at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., where she said she would create a bipartisan council of advisers on policy if elected.
“I love good ideas, wherever they come from,” she said.
Harris said she feels strongly the U.S. needs “a healthy two-party system” to maintain its status “as the strongest democracy in the world” and that she would “be a president for all Americans” if elected. Harris heads next into the lion’s den, Fox News, where she’ll be interviewed Wednesday by the network’s chief political anchor Bret Baier.
Biden to meet with European allies in Berlin:
After canceling a trip last week to Europe due to Hurricane Milton, President Joe Biden is expected to visit Berlin this week to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The meeting comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has sought to bolster aid from Western allies in his country’s fight against Russia ahead of the U.S. election. Last week Germany committed $1.5 billion in military aid to Ukraine. “For us, it is very important that aid does not decrease next year,” Zelenskyy said, thanking Scholz for Germany’s commitment. “It must be sufficient to protect people and lives.”
FLOTUS calls on volunteers to “push” ahead of Election Day:
First Lady Jill Biden visited a Democratic Party office in Madison, Wisc., Monday and told volunteers to “push further” in the final weeks of the campaign. “We have to meet this moment as if our rights are at stake because they are,” she said. “As if our freedoms are on the line, because they are.”
Dr. Biden said “our health safety and freedoms shouldn't hinge on the state you live in” and she called Harris a “tough, compassionate, decisive leader” who would restore abortion rights nationwide.
So it sounds like it sucks to be Harris’ neighbor in L.A.:
Neighbors near Harris’ home in Los Angeles’ Brentwood area say they might move if she wins. “Every time she comes, we have to go through security. The street becomes one-way. If she's about to leave or enter, we have to wait outside 45 minutes,” one woman told The Los Angeles Times.
Harris’ husband Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff bought the home in 2012 for $2.7 million and Harris moved there after they married in 2014. Though yard signs in the area are largely in support of the neighborhood candidate, the Times did note one nearby house had a “EVERYBODY SUCKS / 2024” sign in the front yard.
Harris is serious about people watching Trump’s rallies:
At a rally in Erie, Pa., Monday, Harris showed clips of Trump speaking at his rallies. “He is someone who will stop at nothing to claim power for himself, and you don’t have to take my word for it,” Harris said, before introducing a video of Trump rally and interview clips.
The footage showed Trump talking about “the enemy from within” and how the U.S. needs “one really violent day” and “one rough hour.” “Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged,” Harris said. “He is out for unchecked power.”
Trump headlines Coachella:
The GOP Instagram account posted a mock-up Coachella lineup poster for Trump’s visit to the desert city on Saturday. Trump’s tour of blue states in the final weeks of the campaign feels a bit like Katy Perry going international to save face and promote 134 after flopping in the U.S. Perry performed Rock in Rio in Brazil last month to promote the album, and she’s planning a five-city tour for next year in Australia, her first in the country in six years.
The pent-up demand in new markets can sustain crowds Perry might not otherwise be able to get in North America. For Trump, rather than return to swing states where many of his supporters may have already seen him (and where he may have outstanding bills going back as far as 2016 in some cases), he’s going to new markets of his own. Coachella is his Australia, or something.
Trump gave a rambling 80-minute speech in Coachella and thousands of his supporters were left stranded late after the rally when buses that were supposed to take them to their cars left without them.
Trump ends town hall to listen to music with the crowd for almost 40 minutes:
“Who the hell wants to hear questions?” Trump asked during a town hall Monday with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem after paramedics responded to people with medical issues. Trump then listened and danced to songs with the crowd for nearly 40 minutes including “YMCA,” “Hallelujah,” and “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Trump also cancelled a scheduled appearance Tuesday on CNBC, and Matt Drudge is now calling him an “American Psycho.”
Trump’s former top general calls him “fascist”:
Mark Milley, who served as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump and Biden, said Trump is “fascist to the core,” according to Bob Woodward’s War, out today. “He is a walking, talking advertisement of what he’s going to try to do,” Milley said. “He’s saying it and it’s not just him, it’s the people around him.”
This woman though Bill Clinton was Joe Biden:
Former President Bill Clinton stopped by a Georgia McDonald’s this weekend where a woman mistook him for Biden. “You Joe? Mr. Joe?” No, but he is from politics. Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff Angel Ureña shared the footage of the encounter on social media.
Cher stuns at Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2024:
Cher brought the Victoria’s Secret Fashion show back Tuesday for the first time in six years with a performance of “Strong Enough” and “Believe.” Tyla and Lisa also performed, and among the models who walked were Gigi and Bella Hadid and Tyra Banks.
Charli XCX says she chose Brat green because it was oversaturated:
Charli XCX said the color she chose for her album Brat “was sort of anti-trend” and “oversaturated” because “green had already been such a popular color,” citing examples like the Spotify logo, she told The Wall Street Journal.
She also said she’s against “this idea that once an album comes out, that’s its peak.” “I feel like there are so many more possibilities of what those songs can become,” she said of her new remix album, which Pitchfork gave an 8.0.
Ariana Grande racks up record 17th song with more than 1 billion streams on Spotify:
Ariana Grande now has more songs with more than 1 billion streams on Spotify than any other female artist after “Die For You - Remix” with The Weeknd hit the milestone today.
Grammy voters more diverse than ever:
The Recording Academy says 66% of current Grammy voters have joined since 2019 when it introduced a new membership model to diversify. “It’s essential that our membership reflects the current music community, which is why we have specific requirements for joining and renewing,” Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. told The Hollywood Reporter. “The more representative we are of the music industry, the greater impact we can make on the community as a whole.”
Anne Hathaway covers Queen’s “Somebody to Love” for Broadway for Harris event:
Actress Anne Hathaway said she’s voting for Harris Monday at a “Broadway Rallies for Kamala” event in New York City. Hathaway reprised “Somebody to Love,” which she performed in her 2004 film Ella Enchanted. "We've got a big choice to make, America," she said. "You do have to make a choice. You do have to vote."
Paul Mescal covers GQ:
Actor Paul Mescal wore a vintage kilt with a Versace sweater to promote Gladiator II in his photo shoot with photographer Daniel Jackson for the Nov. 2024 cover of GQ. “How I am in my private life is so precious to me because I get very little of it, and it might be public interest, but it’s not public-obligated information,” he told the magazine.
T Swift is ready for Black Friday:
Capitalist and singer-songwriter Taylor Swift will release a 256-page Eras Tour book with more than 500 images on Nov. 29 just in time for Christmas. She’s also putting out a physical version of her previously digital-only 35-track Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology in vinyl and CD. “This tour has been the most wondrous experience and I knew I wanted to commemorate the memories we made together in a special way,” Swift wrote on social media.
They’re making a Lifetime holiday movie inspired by T Swift and Travis Kelce:
Lifetime has a movie called Christmas in the Spotlight premiering Nov. 23 that sounds a little familiar. The film follows a pop star named Bowyn played by actress Jessica Lord who falls in love with and dates a pro football player. “With people questioning if their feelings for each other are real or just for show, the pressure mounts from the press, paparazzi, their fans and even their family,” the show’s description says.
Thanks for reading! See you next time. ⭐