It’s Kamala Harris

On Tuesday, Joe Biden tapped Kamala Harris as his running mate. But let’s be honest—we ...

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On Tuesday, Joe Biden tapped Kamala Harris as his running mate. But let’s be honest—we all saw this coming. As we wrote in The Morning Dispatch today, “D.C. conventional wisdom had Sen. Kamala Harris pegged as Joe Biden’s likeliest choice for months.” Despite Harris’ numerous attacks on Biden over his busing record and relationship with segregationist senators —not to mention her dicey criminal record as a prosecutor in California—she checks a lot of boxes. She’s a senator in one of the country’s biggest states, she’s the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, and she has experience running her own presidential campaign (albeit a failed one).

“When she was running for president, it was pretty obvious she didn’t know what she was running for,” David says on today’s episode. “But now as a good lawyer she sort of has a client, and the client is the guy at the top of the ticket and the Democratic platform, and that will unleash some of her better skills.” Today, Declan joins The Dispatch Podcast for some punditry on what Biden’s VP pick means for the future of the Democratic Party, a deep dive into foreign election meddling, and a much-needed update on the status of sports during the pandemic.

Show Notes:

–The New York Times’ front page spread of Kamala Harris, Trump’s tweet this morning about suburban housewives, and the DNI Report about election meddling.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Comments (63)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Tracie

    https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1062714105931460608?s=20

    https://twitter.com/CandiceAiston/status/1293373934654517250?s=20

    Here's some tweets a libertarian leftist Facebook friend I went to high school with posted. Maybe a good indicator of how the Left sees the Harris pick. He supported Bernie.

    (Nobody I know is a perfect demographic rep. Specifically, my FBF who posted the meme w/ these tweets is a high functioning stoner in Austin, who's cool with guns and prone to butcher his own animals for grilling - also very pro AK-15s for feral hogs, a local issue. He's fervently anti-cop, pro-choice, and tends to get into FB tiffs with another high school FBF who's Republican and devout Catholic.)

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  2. Genghis John

    This week's Dispatch Podcast exposes David to be the Donald Trump of the Dispatch crew. As Jonah has noted, Donald Trump's gilded tastes more reflect how the normies among us expect the rich to live as opposed how most of the rich actually live. In the wrap-up section while discussing sports, David asked Steve what his "signature goal celebration" was giving many unsportsmanlike examples of what his Anduril-treasuring heart would love to have perpetrated upon imagined, vanquished foes. Fortunately, David gave the only answer appropriate for a true gentleman of sport.

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      Tracie

      "Trump's gilded tastes more reflect how the normies among us expect the rich to live as opposed how most of the rich actually live."

      Poor man's idea of a rich man is the best description of Trump's style I've heard. It's like he took his cues from evening soaps of the 70s and 80s.

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    DavidK

    The gang spoke of what they anticipate will be the Trump campaign's difficulty casting Kamala Harris as an extreme leftist. My sense of the President is that of your average door-to-door salesman who believes that if you repeat something enough, you will induce a trance in the buyer to believe: "It's a great vacuum-- you want the vacuum...".

    Now for the more important question: Why is it that an Irish Jew from Texas (Sarah) so frequently reverts to curling metaphors? What's with that? :-). Now if you want real curling drama, watch the movie "Men with Brooms" with Leslie Nielson.

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    CynthiaW

    I think Sen. Harris is very pragmatic.

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    Ken Peabody

    David mentioned that Kamala Harris would not be good for religious liberty. Can anyone explain to me how we don't have religious liberty? No one has been persecuted for religious belief, no churches have been closed by the state, and I've never heard any politician talking about such a thing

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      Cornelius O’Brien

      Agreed. It’s a non sequitur. The Supreme Court has been staunch to the point of impregnable on religious liberty. Red herring. The Presidential impact on religious liberty is a chimera.

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  6. Jason Runyan

    The Americans was such a great series! I own them all on DVD because the special features are fascinating! The writer used to be in the CIA (I think?), which is how he knew about the program so well.

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    Nathan

    I'm so glad that Steve is representing for men's volleyball! I played club volleyball in college for about 7 years (grad and undergrad). What position did you play, Steve? My guess is outside hitter.

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    Vlad M.

    Sen. Kamala Harris may check all the token boxes of the present day Democratic obsessions (race: "black">"white", gender/ sex : "woman" > "man") but she is a radical.

    As Bret Stephen pointed out, she has recently supported a lot of wild ideas. There's nothing 'safe' about the Green New Deal, packing SCOTUS, denouncing fracking, threatening the 2nd amendment etc. As attorney general of California, she harassed conservative groups, put people in jail for marijuana use while refusing to pursue the death penalty for murderous gang members (e.g. David Hill, E. Ramos) etc. She is an anti-Catholic bigot, wildly pro-abortion, a defender of sanctuary cities, favourable to illegal immigration etc.

    True to her "by any means necessary" approach, Kamala Harris will say, do and support anything helps her. For God's sake, she even accused Biden of a being a racist segregationist and a harasser of women! She was wholly rejected by Democrat voters in the primaries, mind you, but that didn't stop Joe from picking her as his VP.

    Great.

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      Tracie

      "True to her "by any means necessary" approach, Kamala Harris will say, do and support anything helps her."

      So, she'll be whatever the voters want. Is that what's scary?

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    Jonathan Nebel

    Another great podcast. That is, until Declan’s slanderous claim that Kansas State could not win a national championship. We have been very close to playing for the title multiple times (1998 and 2012 are the best examples) and Coach Klieman has this team looking good after an upset of OU just last year. #EMAW

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      Declan Garvey staff-badge Staff

      I knew I'd get some (deserved) flak for this -- I was thinking Kansas, but for some reason said Kansas State! Still don't think the Wildcats will pull it off this year though :)

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        Jonathan Nebel

        But, seriously, loved hearing you on the pod. Nice to put a voice to the words I read in TMD.

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        Jonathan Nebel

        It somehow makes it even worse that you confused us with that loathsome school in Lawrence. And, if sports (especially college football) is about anything, it is about irrational hope. We *could* win it! :)

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    Ethan Cordray

    Okay, David's high school academic quiz bowl stories made me laugh out loud. As an all-state quiz bowl competitor, I'm glad I never dated any of my teammates -- though the overwhelming dudeness of our squad precluded any of that on my part as well (also they were all math and science dudes, to my humanities anchor role, so they didn't necessarily have the most..."crossover appeal," as it were).

    I did date a fellow member of of our speech and debate team for a while, but we fortunately weren't partners. I got to see some of the consequences of ex-partner-dating situations up close, and -- well, let's just say that female policy debaters tend to display vastly superior social combat skills compared to male ones, when the stakes are high.

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      Tracie

      Men, in aggregate, are lightweights when it come to social aggression.

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