Mitch McCann: US correspondent on surge in donations to Kamala Harris' campaign

Seven days since Joe Biden dropped out of the US presidential race, Kamala Harris’ campaign has raised over $200 million. 

Two thirds of that money is from first time donors and 170,000 new volunteers have signed up to assist the campaign. 

US correspondent Mitch McCann tells Mike Hosking focus is now on who Harris will pick as her vice president.  

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is in hot water for comments that are being viewed as dictator-like. At a rally on Friday, the former President told crowds they should vote for him this year and won’t need to vote again in four years time. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right, So i'd Mitch McCann's with us. How are you mate,
I'm good, Mike, how are you very well? Indeed, so
they seem to Obama came to the party eventually over
the weekend, of course, and they got a couple of
hundred million dollars. So so far, so good for Harris.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yeah, it's looking very good for Kamala Harris. Mike, It's
hard to believe it was only seven days ago that
Joe Biden dropped out of the race. Her campaign seed
this morning. They've now raised two hundred million US dollars.
Two thirds of that money is from first time donors,
and one hundred and seventy thousand new volunteers have signed
up to assist the campaign. The focus for Kamala Harris
now is who is she going to pick as her

(00:34):
vice presidential candidate.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Does it matter? I mean in the sense will people go,
oh my god, I wasn't going to vote for Harris,
but no, I am because I've got Whitmer or in
any of the others.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I think where it matters, Mike, is it might be
someone from one of these swing states that might about
to put the Democrats over the top somewhere like Pennsylvania.
One of the people looked at there is the governor
Josh Shapiro. He is incredibly popular, he's a former lawyer,
and he's one of the sort of top three people
talked about. So if they can win Pennsylvania, that will
help the Democrat Democrats.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Out A lot have we put to bed, and this
is where Obama comes in. The people who wanted some
sort of open contest, is that now gone. That's no
longer going to be or will be a problem at
the convention.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
I think what we first saw when Kamala Harris came
out last weekend was a couple of people who were
rumored to be wanting to take her on, so to
bide their time to see if there was an opening.
I think that opening has closed now. The Obamas, the Pelosis,
the Shumers of the world, Joe Biden, they are all
behind Harris. So I think if anyone trying to take
her on it would be seen as a spoiler. And

(01:37):
the Democrats are also trying to get this done before
the convention. They're going to have a virtual role call
in the coming weeks where they're going to try and
lock this in before the convention.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Okay, and then you come to Trump and the business
and demon needing to vote again. I think he's explained himself,
doesn't I mean he didn't literally mean you're never going
to vote again, did he?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
No, this is what he said. Well, Trump said on
Friday at a rally, you've got to get out and vote.
In four you don't have to vote again. We'll have
it fixed so good, you're not going to have to
vote now. Democrats have been flapping their arms, claiming that
this means that Donald Trump, you know, wants to take
over like a dictator. He's not going to allow future elections.
But Republicans have come out and see that's ridiculous. When

(02:16):
he said he wants it fixed, he means the country
being repaired, not fixed for a Cudin outcome, exactly.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Give us quick update on the wildfire in California. How big,
how bad? This is massive.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
It's a fire in the city of Chico, northern California,
seven hours drive north of Los Angeles. It's burnt three
hundred and fifty thousand hectares. It's growing at a size
of twenty square kilometers every hour. The largest fire in
California this year, the seventh largest in history. Earlier this week,
a forty two year old man was arrested suspected of
starting the fire by rolling a burning car into a gully.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Jeez, is it a burning hot summer there in general?
I mean, is that the vibe in America at the moment.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
It is. It's about thirty to thirty two degrees here
in New York today, but we've been getting up to eight,
so I mean, it is a concrete jungle. It is
bloody hot, but we are expecting it to probably be
a bit hotter in the coming weeks as well.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
All right, mate, go well, we'll catch up Wednesday. Apreciate
it very much, Mitch mccawda. Reason I'm asking you that is,
of course, in most of Europe at the moment, it's not.
It doesn't seem that I was watching the Belgian Grand
Prix over the weekend, spent most of the week in
reigning polling quickly are states in the so called swing
states that Mitch was talking about, and this is this
is post the high drama of the last week or so.
Pennsylvania Fox put a pole out on Saturday, Our Time,

(03:29):
Trump forty nine, Harris forty nine. Interesting immersion college poll
taking two days after Biden quit. Trump forty eight, Harris
forty six. So that's Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. Fox did it fifty
to forty nine to Trump. The Emmerson College pole forty
seven apiece, five percent undecided, Michigan forty nine apiece, Georgia

(03:52):
forty eight, forty six Trump, Arizona. We've got an Imerson
College polling since Biden qupped forty nine, forty four Trump.
That'll be his North Carolina forty six, forty three Trump.
And then I can give you the national polse, but
I don't really believe in the national poles. So it
gives you some sort of indication things haven't moved, and
where they have moved, it is still super tight.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
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Speaker 1 (04:18):
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