Mitch McCann: US Correspondent on the significant donations to Kamala Harris' campaign

Momentum is on Kamala Harris' side as the Democrats eat away at Donald Trump's lead in the polls. 

Her campaign says they've raised more than NZ$330 million in the first week since Joe Biden's exit. 

A new poll by the Wall Street Journal also found Harris has erased Trump's six-point lead to just two points. 

US Correspondent Mitch McCann told Mike Hosking the Democrats say that 60% of the funds were raised from first time donors. 

He said there’s been different groups gathering on Zoom to fundraise, Black Women for Kamala, Black Men, South Asian-Americans, and last night saw 60,000 ‘White Dudes for Harris’ raise $4 million to prove that Donald Trump doesn’t own the votes of white men. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So much. McCann. Morning to you, mate, Morning Mike. How
are you am? You're still in New Zealander? You got
a green cart never coming back? You still like a
gold medal ceremony?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I do. And finally, I tell you what yesterday the
American colleagues that we celebrate bronze medals in New Zealand,
and they laughed at me.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
How big of do you'll? Just off the top of
your head, is the Olympic state side on a daily
basis if you're wandering down Madison Avenue.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
It is a lot bigger than I thought. And I've
been surprised at the amount of shops that get on
board with selling Olympic branded clothing. Everywhere I work opposite
in Macy's and Herald Square, they are selling so so
much USA ten USA merchandise.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Okay, Now, Secret Service, we heard a little bit from
the back and forth that they're back at Have you
read the grassy stuff that got released yesterday? Amy, What
a bunch of incompetent buffoons.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, and look, the Secret Service acting director has been
back in front of the Senate today. You'll remember that
meeting they had last week with the director that saw
her resign there was little information, if any offer there.
Today we've seen a little more information shouldn't emerge, and
this has been a fiery hearing this morning. Donald Roae Junior,
he's the acting head of the Secret Service. He told

(01:09):
lawmakers he's been back to the roof where this shooting happened,
and he said what I saw made me ashamed. And
when it comes to the question we were those Secret
Service snipers? Why weren't they on that roof, he's really
passed the buck to local law enforcement. He said they
made an assumption and that we assume that the state
and locals had it sorted, which obviously they didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Make no exactly. Then we come to kalm La in
her phone calls, how much I don't want to be
seen as a conspiracy theorist here. How much of this
money is genuinely new versus money that was just blocked
up until Biden got out of the way and then
suddenly they started giving it again.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, the Democrats say sixty percent of this money is
new money from first time donors, people that haven't donated
before that have been re energized by this Kamala Harris campaign.
Yesterday they came out and said that she's now raised
two hundred million dollars in the first week of her candidacy.
And we've seen these different groups gather on zoom. So
there's been black women for coming, there's been black men,

(02:08):
sound Asian Americans have all come together. And last night
there was a bit of unusual fundraiser. Are sixty thousand
people logged into a zoom called white Dudes for Harris
and they raised these White Dudes Mike raised four million
dollars for her, and they believe it's a moment to
prove that Donald Trump doesn't own the votes of white men.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, it's a very big it's a large amount of money.
Roy Cooper, by the way, pulled out in the VP
race yesterday. When are we expecting that announcement and does
she still have a quality field to choose from?

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Well in the coming days, we're expecting it because it's
been reported now she's going to go on a background
state tour next week with her VP nominees, so we
can expect possibly the next day, the next two days.
The front runners at this stage Mark Kelly Arizona, Josh
Shapiro Pennsylvania. He's getting a lot of credit. These are
both sort of well known people, especially Shapiro in Pennsylvania.

(03:04):
This is a state that Democrats really need to win,
and they feel that if they pick Shapiro, he could
be the one to take them over in that state.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
All right, good stuff, make go well, catch up soon,
Match McCann out of the states for it's this morning,
And in doing my reading as I have been, every
one of the vps is a very good fundraiser, so
they're placing a tremendous amount of emphasis on money. Money
doesn't buy you in an election, but it helps Roy
Cooper goes. I strongly support VP Harris. I know she's
going to win. I was honored to be considered. This

(03:31):
just wasn't the right time for North Carolina or for
me to be potentially on a national ticket. What I
can't work out is that you're not on the national
ticket because you think you're going to lose in reality
and you don't want to be tainted by that. Or
do you get on the national ticket if you can
knowing that the party will thank you for it no
matter which way it goes.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
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