The political bombshells have been dropping so thick and fast here, it’s almost impossible to keep up.
But to help steer us through these unchartered waters – we are joined by Nayyera Haq, former senior director for the Obama White House administration and Christine Emba, Staff Writer for The Atlantic.
Matt Frei: This has been extraordinary, hasn’t it? The last three and a half weeks.
Christine Emba: Absolutely. It feels like we’ve had a year of presidential history in, what, a week, a week and a half. An assassination attempt, a dropout, a convention that was unusual. You could call it historical, but right now it feels like it’s on a high note, at least for Democrats.
Matt Frei: What other surprises are in store for us, then?
Nayyera Haq: I hope nothing as dramatic as this. I think Democrats certainly want to have some consistency at this point. You have early voting starting here in September. So Democrats want to come out of the August convention unified and really focusing on Donald Trump.
Matt Frei: What does Kamala Harris need to do now, to convince the party and the country?
Christine Emba: That she can win? She has kind of the main thing that has been missing from the race so far – youth, energy.
Matt Frei: We forgot about those, didn’t we?
Nayyera Haq: I do hope the media’s now defining a woman in her 50s as young.
Christine Emba: It’s a great contrast in this moment. But, no, I think that she needs to provide both a sense of stability and continuity from what was actually a fairly successful administration, under Joe Biden, to transform herself into someone who looks like she can lead both on the global stage, working with allies and our non-allies, but also with her party and hopefully with the other side.
Matt Frei: What does she stand for, Nayyera?
Nayyera Haq: She’s been preparing for running for president, but certainly not this moment. The entire point of the Biden-Harris ticket originally was to show the depth and breadth of the Democratic Party, including diversity, including expertise. One part of her portfolio at the White House was getting the national security experience that she hadn’t had when she was a senator and when she was attorney general. So she brings this really great mix of being a prosecutor who can very easily go up against a convicted felon.
Matt Frei: A lot of people are saying lots of very positive things about her at the moment. But just a few weeks ago, if you mentioned the fact that she might be top of the ticket, a lot of people, not just Republicans, were laughing.
Nayyera Haq: And certainly within the Democratic Party, it is not entirely sealed up right now. There’s been an effort to not have it seem like a coronation or the passing of the torch. There clearly have been family grievances that need to be aired for Democrats. We’ve seen them come out, particularly over Gaza. I will say that she’s taking a different tack than Biden has. The invitation to Netanyahu is leading to mass protests in DC and lockdown, but she opted not to join and still is not going to be participating in that. Moments like that are how she’s going to set herself apart from the Biden administration, while also trying to carry that mantle forward.
Matt Frei: Why have the Obamas not come out and endorsed her yet?
Christine Emba: I think it’s exactly what was just said. This idea of coronating the next president or hopeful president of the United States.
Matt Frei: We want to hear from Barack Obama, don’t we, about her?
Christine Emba: The public would like to hear from him. However, I think there is still a felt sense in the Democratic Party and elsewhere, too, that this needs to be a fair fight. The best nominee needs to win, not just somebody who happened to be in line, because that is kind of what happened with Joe Biden. And we saw where that led.
Matt Frei: Nayyera, you worked for Obama. Any insights on that one?
Nayyera Haq: He has always tried to play out the process and then come in and be the person who unites the different communities. And this has clearly been a challenge of establishment Democrats versus a younger, up and coming generation and Biden was stuck in that moment. So this is an opportunity for Obama by saying he will, of course, support the eventual nominee, but calling for a process that on the outside appears to be more fair. But let’s be clear. Behind the scenes, there’s a lot of manoeuvring, with even former speaker Pelosi now being the heavyweight saying she backs Kamala.
Matt Frei: You lot are so polite about each other. Unless it’s Republicans versus Democrats. But I just wonder whether deference towards the office of the president is a problem, because frankly, we know, we’ve known for months, if not years, that Joe Biden wasn’t really physically up to it and shouldn’t have someone said to him earlier, as was the original plan, could you please now step aside?
Christine Emba: Yeah, that’s been an interesting conflict, especially in members of the media and the press, many of whom actually felt sort of blindsided after the debate on the 27th. We all knew that Joe Biden was old…
Matt Frei: But no one was saying it.
Christine Emba: Yes, but it didn’t seem like it had been discussed, like it had actually been put out there. And then it was sort of shoved in the entire country space, and no one liked it.
Nayyera Haq: Clearly the sleepy Joe Biden message that Trump had put forward, it worked, and that was part of what was leading into the fact that Biden was keeping such a crazy schedule. I will say the average voter, though, my parents among them, were sitting there really just dreading another contest between Biden and Trump.
Matt Frei: Okay, so if Donald Trump defeats another female candidate in a presidential election this time – Kamala Harris, first time it was Hillary Clinton- what does that say about America?
Nayyera Haq: I think people right now would already say that America has had some serious challenges of racism and misogyny that it needs to get past, and that’s part of what adds to the spiciness of this moment.
Matt Frei: Okay. What does it say about America if she’s defeated?
Christine Emba: I mean, it says that America still has many things to move past in that, in some ways, America continues to demand chaos. What that says about our trust in the system and institutions is not anything good.
Matt Frei: As we go into the sort of next phase of the election campaign, goodness knows what kind of surprises are in store for us. What’s the one thing you’ll be watching out for, to see which way this race is going?
Christine Emba: I’m getting really interested in seeing who Kamala picks for her vice presidential candidate. The jokes on the internet and in the media say that it will, to combat these allegations, have to be sort of the blandest and driest white male possible.
Matt Frei: Bland and dry or interesting and white?
Christine Emba: Not too interesting.
Matt Frei: Not too interesting. That’s always the job of the vice president, isn’t it? Don’t be too interesting.
Nayyera Haq: Right. Not to overshadow the president, but it also is about bringing different aspects of the party together. They have some fabulous governors and leaders coming in from the South who could also be white and male.
