We Suddenly Have A Real Campaign On Our Hands

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

‘We Are Not Going Back’

It was so hard to imagine an incumbent president ditching his reelection campaign as late as the July before Election Day and equally difficult to envision a smooth passing of the baton to his vice president that I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking through what a Kamala Harris candidacy would look like. As a result, I probably underestimated how Kamala Harris would personally embody the themes of her campaign in ways that are particularly effective where Biden wasn’t in drawing contrasts with Trump.

The generational difference in age was obviously going to be helpful, but the chant she led at her first campaign rally since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee for president – “We are not going back” – is more than about relative youthfulness. It harkens to the dark Trump years and even obliquely references Biden, though not in a disrespectful way, while pivoting toward the future. It’s the same powerful message from Clinton 1992 and Obama 2008. She’s not only delivering that message, but like Clinton and Obama did before her, she stands as symbol of that message:

Harris on Project 2025: "Can you believe they put that thing in writing?" pic.twitter.com/LKwsKJPUH8

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 23, 2024

It’s easy to see her gender and racial diversity as potent attack points for Trump, but less obvious until you see her in action how her own story embodies the central 2024 issues of immigration, abortion, and tolerance. Joe Biden prided himself on enjoying the same embodiment of working-class whites in the industrial Midwest.

It’s hard to overemphasize how much of an advantage that personal embodiment provides, not just in enhancing her credibility or in giving her relevant experience or in resonating with particular constituencies. It means her mere presence speaks to those issues. She raises those issues just by showing up, which let’s her address them without even having to talk about them. She’s already checked those boxes implicitly, and it frees her up to address other issues explicitly.

We’re still mostly flying blind on the state of the race, pending more polls conducted since Biden’s withdrawal, so today’s headline that we have a real race on our hands isn’t a reference to the horse race but to the kind of race Harris is in a position to run now. Even at 59, Harris can run a race of generational change, especially against a 78-year-old former president trying to regain his lost office. Who wants to go back to that?

2024 Ephemera

• Historic flood of cash powers Democratic campaign efforts since Biden withdrew.
• WSJ: “The Trump campaign filed a long-shot challenge to block Vice President Kamala Harris from campaign funds in what used to be the joint Biden-Harris war chest, in a complaint filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.”
• Schumer and Jeffries throw their support to Harris.
• Politico: The GOP doesn’t want to talk about abortion. Harris wants to make them.

A Glimpse Of The Rancidness

House Republican leaders have reportedly urged their members to tone down the racist attacks on Kamala Harris, but since they won’t stop, you’re left to wonder if it’s a “have your cake and eat it, too” display of handwringing:

Practically Freudian

In a glorious on-air flub, Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow momentarily bungles the “E” in DEI as “exclusion”:

Biden To Give Oval Office Address

President Biden will deliver a nationally televised Oval Office address today at 8 p.m. ET, his first public remarks since ending his bid for re-election and throwing his support to Vice President Kamala Harris.

This is the fourth Oval Office address of Biden’s presidency, all within the past 14 months, and the second in 10 days.

Headline Laughs

In my next life, I want to come back devoid of skepticism. I can’t even imagine what that would be like, but it might look something like this: “Trump is back to insulting his opponents despite reported transformation”

Secret Service Wants Trump To Curtail Outdoor Rallies

In the wake of the attempt on Donald Trump’s life, the Secret Service is encouraging the Trump campaign not to hold outdoor events with large crowds.

Secret Service Director Resigns

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned one day after she endured withering scrutiny from both parties in a House committee hearing.

Menendez Resigns

Convicted on federal bribery charges after a previous public corruption case against him ended in a hung jury, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) finally announced his resignation from the Senate, effective Aug. 20.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) promised to fill the seat quickly for the short remainder of Menendez’s term, which ends in January. It won’t be filled by Murphy’s wife, Tammy, who ran earlier this year in the Democratic primary to succeed Menendez.

One note: While Senate Democrats widely called for Menendez to leave, few Republicans senators joined the chorus because … it would have been awkward to force a convicted felon to resign when their own party’s presidential nominee is also a convicted felon. Fun times in the GOP.

Everything’s Fiiine

Sunday was the warmest day ever recorded by humans, according to the European climate service Copernicus.

In slightly (but only slightly) more positive news, greenhouse gas emissions may have peaked.

Nature Doing Its Thing

A hydrothermal eruption in Yellowstone National Park damaged a boardwalk and sent tourists scrambling but there were no reported injuries:

Here’s an aerial shot of the aftermath. The otherworldly clear blue pool at the bottom center of the photo is what the larger pool above it, now gray and opaque, looked like before the explosion:

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