As Kamala Harris narrowed down her selections for a operating mate, Politico’s influential “Playbook” e-newsletter posed a well timed query Tuesday morning: “Is Walzmentum actual?” Later that day, Harris would formally decide Minnesota governor Tim Walz, who joined her that evening in Philadelphia and gave a rousing speech earlier than an enthusiastic crowd.
“One thing had modified, and we had seen it within the conversations we have been having with people,” says “Playbook” coauthor Eugene Daniels on this week’s episode of Contained in the Hive. Walz grew to become “the darkish horse on this, and folks have been extra curious about what he needed to say,” Daniels provides. “And a part of it got here from his means to go on MSNBC or CNN or no matter and message issues that that they had been attempting to do for a very long time.” Whereas Democrats typically spoke of Donald Trump or JD Vance “when it comes to the hazard to democracy,” Walz, he notes, “simply mentioned it was bizarre, that they’re bizarre. And, you realize, that caught with folks.”
Daniels, who additionally serves as a Politico White Home correspondent and is at present president of the White Home Correspondents’ Affiliation, has, together with a small group of journalists, been intently protecting Harris for years. In latest weeks, he jokes, “we’ve been watching everybody type of are available our sandbox.”
On this episode, Daniels additionally discusses the challenges Harris confronted contained in the Biden White Home, her relationship with the information media, and her evolving communication model. He notes how Harris appeared to develop into extra comfy her second 12 months in workplace, talking off-the-cuff about points like abortion rights following the Dobbs resolution.
“The factor that has modified about her communication model is she’s simply extra [used] to being herself,” Daniels says. “She doesn’t care in regards to the snigger. She is extra comfy making the case. This can be a girl who’s a prosecutor. I feel if persons are attempting to know her, it’s important to perceive that. As a result of Vice President Harris governing with out type of like somebody to prosecute the case towards, is a unique Vice President Harris. And her group says that she is at her finest when she has a case to prosecute or somebody to prosecute towards. So when abortion comes down and he or she turns into the lead particular person on reproductive entry for not simply the White Home, however for Democrats, she now has somebody to combat, proper?”
Harris demonstrated she may successfully make the case towards Trump in appearances on MSNBC and CNN simply after Joe Biden’s disastrous debate efficiency, in addition to on the Essence Competition in New Orleans. Daniels recollects Democrats calling and texting him after, saying, “It’s bizarre to have a candidate who can do that. Like, this is the reason we have to transfer away from him.”
