BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL: Ross and Mandy React to Biden Dropping Out

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good afternoon. I'm ros Kaminski,and I'm joined by my koa friend and
colleague, Mandy Connell, and weare here to bring you the news of
the day as we best understand it, along with a little bit of analysis,
that of course, being that JoeBiden will not be running for president
of the United States. And Ijust thought I would start this conversation Mandy
by noting that Joe Biden and DonaldTrump have something exceptionally important in common,

(00:25):
actually one of the most important thingsprobably ever, and that is that neither
one of them wants us to havea weekend where we don't have to work.
Not Trump's fault. Yeah. Yeah, So people in TVP, it
was like everybody was buzzing because NBCNews published a story on Thursday that said
Biden insiders inside the campaign are sayingthe end is near. And so we

(00:46):
were sort of making contingency plans,like what happens if it happens today,
all that stuff, because that's whatyou do. You have to plan for
things that you have no control over. And then it kind of about an
hour and a half later, itstarted coming down like if anything's going to
happen, it's happen this weekend,So you know, somebody knew, right,
and Mark Helpern, who's pretty wellsourced within Democratic circles, put out

(01:07):
a piece, I think it wason Friday, saying that Joe Biden would
get out this weekend, probably Sunday. And he did get that part right,
although a part that he got wrongwas he said that Biden would not
endorse Kamala Harris. But he did, and we'll get in a few moments,
I'm sure, to this conversation aboutwill it actually will it actually be
her? But there are so manyaspects to this, I guess at this

(01:30):
point it's not surprising. The pressureon him was simply too great, not
just from Democratic politicians, but thedonors had just stopped donating. Yeah,
it was very clear that the peoplewho make a campaign go, and those
are the money people, had simplydecided that they had had enough of the
campaign of Joseph R. Biden andwanted him to step aside. And in

(01:53):
addition, a lot of the membersof the House who are running for reelection
were in full panic. Modemocrats arealso defending multiple seats in the Senate this
year, and they knew that ifit kept going the way it was going,
there was a zero percent chance thatthey would be able to maintain any
of those seats in the Senate,and it would be a lot harder to
get some pick up any seats inthe House. So the writing was on

(02:15):
the wall. I'm shocked it tookthis long. And today we see kind
of the lionization of Joe Biden.Oh what a wonderful man. He always
put the country first. You knowwhat A let me tell you this ross.
If whoever is at the top ofthe ticket loses in November, these
same people who are lionizing him todaywill turn into a pack of jackals to

(02:36):
blame him for any Democratic losses becausehe waited so long to drop out.
When if it sounds like it's notthat much time, two weeks right from
the debate to now, but that'stwo weeks of fundraising, that's two weeks
of resetting the message, that's twoweeks of figuring things out, and now
we're a month away from the DNCand we don't have a clear candidate.
So I saw one of the mostremarkable political interviews I've seen in a long

(02:59):
time time. Shannon Bream had awoman named Lindy Lee. That's l I
on Fox News Sunday today, andshe is a big time Democratic fundraiser and
delegate to the RNC. And sit, wait, you said democratic fundraiser and
delegated and delegate. I'm sorry,delegate to the DNC. Confuse the crap

(03:20):
on that one. Sorry delegate tothe DNC. And it was she said,
Look, Shannon, I'm here totell you the truth. I'm not
here to gaslight you. I'm nothere to give you talking points. And
I want you to know the bigdonors, the people with at least six
figure checks but more like seven figurechecks, are not answering. Their phones
have have absolutely walked away, andand we think we're down something on the

(03:44):
order of one hundred million dollars versuswhere we thought we were going to be.
I have it on good authority thatthe Biden campaign called that lady after
her hit on Fox News to tellher they were none too pleased, and
then shortly after they dropped out droppedout. Wow, if that is an
accurate turn of events, maybe youknow I made this comment the other day

(04:06):
on your show, Ross, andthat is when enough people tell you you're
dead, lie down. It's anold adage and I've always loved it.
But apparently he finally he finally realizedthat his campaign is absolutely dead, absolutely
dead. So Joe Biden announced thisin a statement that he posted on Twitter.
Oh I will note, by theway, Mandy, it's being reported

(04:27):
that Joe Biden told his senior staffabout this one minute before he went public
with it. So I guess,yeah, I guess he figured they wouldn't
keep their mouth shut. And I'mnot gonna I'm not gonna share with you
the whole note. I'll share one, one very short paragraph. It's been
the greatest honor of my life toserve as your president. And while it's
been my intention to seek reelection,I believe it's in the best interest of

(04:48):
my party in the country for meto stand down and focus solely on fulfilling
my duties as president for the remainderof my term. So my first question
is, what do you make ofthis coming out as a Twitter statement rather
than going on live TV. Okay, do you want a snarky answer,
do you want the serious answer?One of each please? Okay. The

(05:10):
serious answer is that this has gotto be the biggest, bitterest pill to
swallow in the history of a fiftysomething political career, and he knew that
once he decided to drop out,it had to be sooner rather than later.
For all of those reasons I justmentioned a minute ago. He's already

(05:30):
put it off long enough. He'salready created more havoc for two weeks than
needed to be from a political campaignby staying in. But does that mean
he wants to stand up in frontof the American people and put his tail
between his legs and say I'm steppingdown. No, And then the snarky
answer is, well, Ross,it's past four pm on the East Coast.
The guy definitely has a lot ofpride. And I understand that.

(05:53):
I'm no Joe Biden fan, butI understand you've been in politics for fifty
years and then you become president ofthe United States and you're proud of yourself
and you don't want to look likea guy who can't do the job.
So I get that. But Ithink all of that is right. Actually,
well, I think the snarky onemay be a little too snarky,
but I also think in a wayit re emphasizes his weakness that he did

(06:15):
it this way. Some people willsay what you said, right, It
was just too difficult to just comeout and say this thing. But I
also think it just makes him lookweak and I'm not looking to pile on.
After all, he's gone already,or he will be gone already.
But it's just the other day,Mandy I said that it would be fitting

(06:36):
if the last video we saw ofJoe Biden, at least during this campaign
was his painfully slow, halting,lonely walk up the short stairs onto Air
Force One after he was diagnosed withCOVID. And it was really something watching
him. He looked like a guyagain, not trying to pile on.

(06:56):
He looked like a guy who shouldbe in an assisted living facility. Isn't
it the same as when you watcha formerly incredible quarterback? Is this not
similar to Brett Farv with the MinnesotaVikings? You know, and though even
if you love the guy, doyou really want to see him like this?
You know, it's like seeing amovie start trying to hang onto their

(07:18):
youth a little too long. It'slike, even if you have compassion for
them and like them and the thingsthat they did. And I disagreed with
most of Joe Biden's policies. ButI can still appreciate the fact that nobody
wants to go out. No,you want to be remembered on top,
right. You want to be rememberedat your best. This is why a
lot of famous people just kind offade into the woodwork in their later years,

(07:39):
because that's how they want to beremembered. So this has been horrible
and sad, and I'm not gonnalie a little bit nervy, unnerving and
scary to watch unfold because now he'snot strong enough to run for reelection,
but he's still running the country.M Okay, we're still seeing the same
age related deficits. They still existeven though he's not running for office.

(08:01):
And don't get me wrong, thisis not a you know, he should
step down right now. But atleast we know, according to Karine Jean
Pierre, that he has a teamand you know they handle things. I
don't know the whole is. Thisentire situation is so unsettling and unnerving.
There's a phrase I like a lotthat's I've heard it more often used in

(08:24):
economics about like when did the marketgo bad? Or when did the economy
go bad? Or how did thathappen, and the answer is gradually and
then suddenly, yes, right,gradually and immediately in this case, and
I think that's what happened with JoeBiden. People have been asking for a
long time. There was a FoxNews reporter about a year ago today who
asked him in a press conference,are you too old to do this job?

(08:46):
And that guy got you just gotwrecked by everybody coming after him.
It was it's been gradually and thensuddenly, which I do think as a
as a general matter, can happenwith folks as they get older. It's
gradual and then suddenly. That's Imean watching my own father decline. He
didn't decline in quite the same way, but that is how it happens with

(09:07):
older people. It's like they're fine, they're fine, they're fine, and
then you don't see him for awhile, and then all of a sudden
you see them and you're like,when do they become so elderly? You
know, it does happen that way, and in all honesty, that's the
best possible scenario. You don't wantto die slowly over many, many,
many years. It's like, youknow, survive and be great and then
fall off a cliff. Unfortunately,he's falling off a cliff when we're all

(09:30):
expecting him to run the country.Ross I opened up the text line if
people want to jump on the CommonSpirit health text line and give us their
reactions text five sixty six nine,Oh, we're going to be here until
six o'clock. Yep, questions,comments, whatever you like, five sixty
six nine zero. Mandy and Ican both see this, So whatever you
want to send us, one orboth of us will will respond to it.
All right, Let's let's go toa thing you mentioned a moment ago

(09:50):
and a lot of people are talkingabout right now. Speaker of the House
Mike Johnson came out with a statementthat I'm not reading, but he basically
said, if Joe Biden can't runfor reelection, he can't he's not fit
for serving in the job right nowas well, a lot of people feel
that way. I'm I think I'mnot quite there. Why would Mike Johnson

(10:13):
say that? There? You know, he might just mean it, which
is a weird thing. We don'tthink normally about politicians saying things they actually
mean. But do you think MikeJohnson actually means that Joe Biden shouldn't be
president anymore because he just can't dothe job. And if you don't think
he actually means it, or ifyou think he means it and he's trying

(10:35):
to do something else, what doyou think is the upside? Because I
can only see political downside for Republicansif Joe Biden actually resigned, which he
will not do. No, no, but the only upside Because I was
thinking about this earlier, like isit better if it remains as it is
for political reasons only? Right?And again, if you're looking at the

(10:56):
political reason, this is different fromwhat's best for the country, because what's
best for the country is that wehave a commander in chief who has the
faculties all the time to do thejob. That's thing number one, But
thing number two politically, if theyelevate Kamala and thrust her into the presidency
right now, it completely negates anytime to go and campaign. You cannot

(11:20):
be thrust into the position of presidentof the United States and have all that
goes with that and still execute acampaign for the presidency that you weren't running
for until a month before the convention. I'm still November. See what do
we have? Like one hundred daysto the election a little over right.
Okay, So that's a super interestingpoint. I mean, often you have

(11:41):
incumbent presidents running for reelection and theydo go campaign. Most of them do.
Biden couldn't for his own reasons.Most so that's an interesting point.
That would be a reason for Democratsnot to want to move her into the
presidency. But my thought was ifshe became president, and again neither of
you. I think that Joe Bidenis actually going to resign the presidency and

(12:03):
give it over to her now,But if that happened, she'd be running
as an incumbent, and wherever shewas it would be madam president Madam president,
and I think that'd be a significantplus for her. Although I still
think she's a very weak candidate whomTrump is likely to beat. I think
so too, And already people areasking on the text line, who do
you think will be the most realisticcandidate? And let's say this, Ross,

(12:24):
let's just throw this out for asecond. If they throw Kamala overboard,
right, because she's not popular,she has terrible approval waitings, she's
a bad candidate. As Ross justsaid. The Biden Harris money from what
I can understand which is right nowis like two hundred and fifty four million.
That's our number from a couple daysago. So I don't know what

(12:46):
it is right now, but liketwo hundred and fifty four million dollars that
can only stay with Biden Harris.I don't think that he can necessarily.
He could transfer it to the DNC, I guess, and they could transfer
it down, I guess. Butthe other part of this is you've talked
about it on your show. I'veheard you talking about the Congressional Black Caucus
and how they have been rock solidbehind Joe Biden. And if you turn

(13:11):
around and throw the first woman ofcolor to ever hold the office of vice
president, I think you have areal problem there. I do too.
I think that that Democrats probably can'twin with Kamala Harris, and they also
probably can't win without her. Yes, yes, you're damned if you do

(13:33):
and damned if you don't in thissituation. And that's you know. I
was listening to a couple of thetalking heads that were at the RNC last
week, and one of them said, you know, I've been doing this.
This guy's like old grizzled guy.He goes. You know, I've
been doing this a long time andnever have I seen a political party that's
usually so savvy as the Democratic Partyto squander an opportunity to signal that the

(13:56):
primary was open. Because once onedemoc Credit Canada had seriously like if a
Gavin Newsoen had jumped in, itwould have been a free for all and
it would have been an open primary. But they didn't, and they knew
what was going on and they cutthemselves off at the knees because of it.
So Roussell, are we just now, I guess the Democrats have just
to is are they going to justdisenfranchise all the voters and allow the delegates

(14:18):
to choose? I don't know whatchoice they're going to have, right,
And I mean a lot of theDemocrats who've been supporting Biden have been saying,
look, fourteen million people voted forJoe Biden in the Democratic primaries.
It would be unbelievably undemocratic, lowercaseand uppercase d to just install somebody else.

(14:39):
But at least if they installed Harris, they're still installing someone who was
on the ticket that fourteen million peoplevoted for. Right, But as a
separate point, and this is somethingI wanted to dig into with you.
If Kamala Harris is at top ofthe ticket, I would think that most
legitimate contenders to be her running matewould see it as a suicide mission.

(15:03):
Right, Okay, let me yesin a way, depending on where you
are currently in the Democratic Party.Right, So let me just throw one
out because a lot of people aretalking about Josh Shapiro. And Joshapiro has
been governor of Pennsylvania for a shorttime. He's relatively conservative as Democrats go.
He was the attorney general of thestate before, and he has a

(15:26):
very very bright political future in frontof him. So if you were someone
like that, would you accept therunning mate request? If you got it
Mark Kelly? And here's why Joshapiroand Mark Kelly make good sense because regardless
of what happens in this race,they are raising their name id over and
over and oh, you can't buythat kind of media, right, So

(15:46):
even if they go into it withthese relatively and by the way, we
shouldn't be so certain here, rightbecause if anything the last few weeks have
taught me is whatever you think aboutthis race, throw it out the window,
because it is it's been one chaoticevent after another. I don't think
any of the old rules apply here, right. But that being said,
even if you think you might lose, if you're Mark Kelly or Joshapiro,

(16:07):
to have your name, to havethe kind of camera time, to get
the name ID, to get readyfor twenty twenty eight, then it would
be worth it. But if you'reGavin Newsome, you don't need that,
right, You don't need to havethe stink of a loss. And he's
from California, so it can't behim because she's from California, So you
know. I mean, I thinkit really depends on how if you want

(16:30):
to be known more and known quicklymore, then you would you would consider
it. And I just just tofollow up on something Mandy noted about not
speaking with too much certainty, whichis absolutely right, and I try to
behave that way in most things.In the betting odds right now, Donald
Trump is somewhere around sixty three percentto win and Kamala Harris is somewhere around

(16:52):
thirty seven percent to win. Anda lot of people will think about these
things and see a big gap likethat, and then their minds it goes
to something like this is a surething because it's a big gap. But
it's not. And here's an easyway to think about it. If there's
a game that has odds of sixtythree to thirty seven and you play it
one hundred times, then the lesslikely one still is the outcome thirty seven

(17:18):
out of those hundred times. That'sa lot. That's a lot. And
the betting odds in twenty sixteen.I know a lot of people say,
well, the polls were bad andYadA, YadA, YadA. But in
twenty sixteen, the betting odds infavor of Hillary Clinton and against Donald Trump
were more than sixty three thirty seven, and Trump won that one. So

(17:40):
and the other thing to keep inmind is that if there's any Republican capable
of making a mistake big enough tocost the election, it's Donald Trump.
Yep, yep, yep. AlthoughRoss I saw at a rally yesterday or
today he actually made some self deprecatingcomments about his co owner, a com
owner, and I thought, whois this man? Oh my god,

(18:00):
here are we watching right now?He's looking at a video and he looked
at the photo I guess of himstanding up with his fist they've been,
you know, they showed it behindhim and he was like, look at
that comb over, and then ofcourse he goes but look from this side,
it looks good. It was justvery funny. It was weird,
very strange. But again to yourpoint, this is not a lock for
anyone. Now, I just foundNewsweek has already begun the deep dive on

(18:21):
what happens. Obviously, Kamala Harriswould be the easy way to transfer the
tens of millions of dollars sitting inthe Biden Harris war chest. Then what
if Democrats don't choose Harris, andthey say the Democratic Party's delegates could choose
another candidate that they see as givingthe party a better chance against Trump.

(18:41):
In November, other high profile Democratsfloated as possibly stronger alternatives to Harris include
California Governor Gavin Newsom Michigan Governor GretchenWhitmer. But they have said they would
not run for the oval office intwenty twenty four. That doesn't mean anything
if there's a contested election. Thisis very interesting. There's a possibility that

(19:03):
no candidate wins a majority on theroll call. If this happens, more
than seven hundred super delegates. Remember, the super delegates were the ones that
shows Hillary in twenty sixteen over thewill of the people who wanted Bernie Sanders.
They created the super delic good votingsystem so they could make sure Bernie
did not get the nomination. Sothe super delegates are really, if there's
any kind of contested election, goingto be the ones that are going to

(19:26):
choose who wins. So a couplethings. Gretchen Whitmer said in the past
couple of hours that she's not running, and I believe her. I don't
think, you know, I thinkshe's one of these people, as you
described, who if they have presidentialambitions, she just wait until twenty twenty
eight. So she said that she'snot running. A lot of folks who

(19:48):
listen to our shows probably are Republicansand probably understand in their heads some of
the rules of Republican conventions when they'regoing to have these votes. And in
Republican conventions, the delegates are boundto the candidate that they were elected to
the convention to vote for, atleast at the beginning of the process.
That is not true in the Democraticconvention, and the Democratic delegates could vote

(20:14):
for whoever they want, even inthe first round. But the thing to
keep in mind is the vast,vast, vast majority of the delegates are
Biden people. Now, they're notgoing to vote for Biden, but they're
not left wing Bernie Brow types whoare going to go for some leftists.
Going back to what we said before, Mane, I just don't know how
they get around Kamala. Harris.I don't either. I think it would

(20:34):
be a suicidal move. I meannow, especially because we are seeing Republicans
starting to make tiny inroads in theAfrican American community. Right They're starting to
chip away, chip away at someof that very reliable Democratic base of black
voters. And if they were justto toss Kamala overboard, I just think
it would be optically terrible and certainlyeasy to point out the hippoca of the

(21:00):
party that claims to be the partyof diversity, equity and inclusion, excluding
the first woman of color who wasthe vice president from having the chance at
the nomination Ross. I'm gonna tellyou, I think really they're looking at
this and saying, Okay, ifwe can pull this out at the presidential
level with Kama, it'll be amiracle. But we're going to focus a
ton of money and a ton ofattention on these down ticket ballot races,

(21:21):
conceed the White House and then saywe're going to try and keep our majority
in the Senate, which is goingto be really, really hard because there
are at least two Democrats who arevery vulnerable, Sharrod Brown in Ohio and
John Tester in Montana. So theyare they have to put everything they've got
against defending those races, and maybethey decide she's the sacrificial lamb, right,

(21:44):
And it's it's worth noting that thosewere two of the more aggressive senators
Democratic senators to come out and callfor Joe Biden to drop out those two
because they are in trouble. JoeManchin did so today. He's not a
Democrat anymore, and that is aseat that's going to flip from effectively Democrat
to Republican in the next election.Because yeah, yeah, because you got
to see Jim Justice's Bulldog, whichwe didn't talk about dog, baby Dog.

(22:10):
You and I actually didn't talk aboutbaby dog when you joined me from
the convention. Would you like tojust take seventeen seconds or eleven seconds to
talk about baby Dog. Let mejust ask this one question and we can
move on. Would we be havinga conversation about the governor of West Virginia
who's running for Joe Mansion seat ifwe didn't see baby dog on the stage?

(22:30):
No? And doesn't that make hima brilliant politicians genius genius? Absolutely?
And he looks like the dog.Well he does, and I honestly
I worry about him. He can'teven really stand very well. He's not
physically doing well, So I worryabout that guy. Was an got a
cute little dog. There was anew poll that came out from the Detroit

(22:51):
Free Press in the last forty eighthours or so that this is before Biden
dropped out, of course, thathad Donald Trump up seven against Joe Biden,
and that and he had a sevenpoint lead, although the actual numbers
were different with or without third partycandidates in the race. Again, in
Michigan, this is a big deal. And if that poll is right,

(23:17):
not only do I not think thatKamala Harris can save it, I don't
think that any Democrat other than well, Gretchen Whitmer may be that one state,
but other than Michelle Obama, whoI think isn't doing this. No.
I talked to so many people onso many different shows. I don't
know if you and I spoke aboutthis, but Michelle Obama has been very
clear that she does not want it. And Michelle Obama is living the rock

(23:38):
star life. She's all like onOprah's yacht and then on this yacht and
they got a hous and Hawaiian how'sin Georgetown. Why in the world would
she want to go back to thatdrudgery when she is leading an absolutely fantastic
life. They've already had power.They will always be Barack and Michelle Obama,
and I don't think that that isappeal appealing to her at this stage.
I could be totally wrong, butshe seemed pretty certain and I believe

(24:02):
her way more than I believe alot of these other politicians like Gavin Newsom
have said, Oh, I'm notrunning, I'm not running the time.
No, No, I'm not goingto do it. Gavin Newsom I can
see not doing it because he's prettysure whoever it is is gonna lose.
When your opponent gets shot, ittends to make them a lot more sympathetic,
you know. And yeah, andhe's just such a easy to dislike

(24:25):
character. He's like a like avillain from the Minions movie or something with
the slicked back hair and the Yeah. I'm keeping an eye on the betting
odds. Trump Trump is trading sixtyor sixty one percent to win, Kamala
Harris trading thirty eight to thirty ninepercent. Everyone else together is like one
or two percent. Really does thatsound about right to you? Do you

(24:47):
think Trump is like a three totwo favorite at this point, A three
to two favorites sixty forty I youknow, I don't know. I do
not know because at the latest pollingdata I just pulled it out. Oh
this is post debate. Never mind. I was looking for post convention polls,

(25:07):
but we haven't seen enough of those. You know, I hate to
look at polls. We see whatpolls did in twenty sixteen, right,
twenty sixteen was the year that finallybroke my addiction to polls before an election
because they got it so badly wrong. To your point, the betting odds
where Hillary's got this, it's luck. We don't have to worry about it.
I think it's a dangerous way toget complacent about recognizing that everybody has

(25:33):
to vote. You can't. Youcan't think, oh my guys got it.
I don't need to go out andvote. That's what happened in Florida
with Bush Gore. When they announcedthat Gore had the state before they closed
the ballots in the Central time zonepart of Florida. It depressed voter turnout
because you're like, oh, myvote doesn't matter. So all of these
different things about polls. They're useful, but are they really If they're not

(25:55):
accurate, they're just frustrating and makeyou angry and upset. But they're also
have a tendency to depress someone's enthusiasmfor their candidate, to depress fundraising,
because if you think your guy's gonnalose, why give right? What's the
point why throw good money after bad? I look at a tweet here.
It seems to me it's probably prettygood for Kamala Harris financially and maybe not

(26:15):
so great politically. And it's atweet from Alex Soros, who is George
Soros's son. And for those whodon't pay very close attention to this,
Alex Soros is really running things now. George Soros is not. And I'm
not exactly tied in with these people. But everything I've ever read has said
that Alex Soros is to the leftof his dad, a true radical leftist,

(26:38):
and it says it's time for usall to unite around Kamala Harris and
beat Donald Trump. She's the bestand most qualified candidate we have. And
I think this is part of theblitz from the Harris people to try to
smack down any competition right away.Well, and the political strategist like Alex
Soros knows whoever it is, doesn'thave time to fundraise whoever it is.

(27:02):
If it's not Kamala, they arenot going to raise two hundred and fifty
four million dollars in four weeks.They're not going to be able to raise
that kind of money. So ratherthan draw this process out, they're gonna
shove their preferred candidate down your throat. That's the that's CMO here. This
is the super delegates behind the scenes. So that's where that's coming from.
And we got some good texts onthe text line at five six, six

(27:23):
nine. Oh, if you wantto hit us up on the Common Spirit
health text line, So how aboutwe read some of those next us.
Yeah, we'll do that. We'lltake a quick break here, we'll get
some news in. When we comeback, we'll share your text. I
will also share with you the statementfrom former President Donald Trump what he said
after he learned that Joe Biden wasnot running for reelection. Let's just say

(27:45):
it doesn't fall perfectly into the wholemister nice guy now or unity thing that
we had heard so much about.But Mandy and I are going to be
with you for about the next hourand a half. Keep it right here
on KOA and keep those texts comingin. At five sixty six nine zero,
we'll respond to a bunch of themright after this. Good afternoon.

(28:11):
I'm Ross Kaminski, joined by MandyConnell. Yes, we are live bringing
you the news of the day,bringing you the news and analysis and all
that, because that's what we dofor you here on KOA, and we
are encouraging you to keep in touchwith us by text at five sixty six
nine zero with comments and questions.Mandy, what's jumping out at you from
the text line? Well, ofcourse, the first one that says thanks

(28:32):
for the overtime, Ross and Mandy, I really didn't want to wait twenty
four hours to hear from you guys. Thanks Rod. We appreciate you too.
Thank you, Rod, Thank you. I want to jump into this
question because it's a detail question that'spretty easy to answer. Sorry, just
tuned in. You may have coveredthis. Do state election laws come into
play with determining the nominee and thatis no. Now, if we were

(28:52):
at a point where Joe Biden wasalready on the ballot and ballots had been
printed, then that would probably createfifty literal different states of chaos because every
state has different rules about what happenswhen someone drops out of the race midway
and they're already on the ballot,but the official nomination process hasn't even happened
yet. That's what happens at theconvention. So until that's done, none

(29:15):
of those state issues would be anissue. I think that it's after the
convention that things are going to beinteresting. Yeah, I think so,
And trust me, Democrats in allfifty states will clear the glide path to
help whoever it is get on thisballot. They will make it work.
Listener text here do you have Mandyand Ross, do you have an input

(29:37):
on the Democrats punting this election?By that I mean killing Kamala's political career
this cycle to get her out ofthe way and loading up the ticket for
the next election with Gavin or Poluswith youth and ultra progressive views. So
I'll give you my take, andthen I want Mandy's take on this.
So Kamala Harris couldn't even win herown state when she was trying to run
for president. She didn't even getto Iowa, much less compete in Iowa.

(30:03):
Right, So, Kamala Harris Idon't think actually had a political career
after being Vice president of the UnitedStates. I don't think she was ever
going to I still don't think,even against a candidate as weak as Trump,
that she's going to become president ofthe United States. And then as
far as twenty twenty eight, Ithink almost nobody is thinking that far ahead.
They're thinking about, first, isthere a way to save this presidential

(30:25):
election? And that's not very likelybut not impossible. And then, as
Mandy has been emphasizing throughout the conversationso far, can we save a few
members of the House, Can wecan we save a Senate majority? Unlikely?
But I'll tell you, look,look how much Joe Manchin by himself

(30:45):
even when he was a Democrat,was able to stop the Democrats' agenda when
the Democrats had a one seat majority, right, And if Democrats could save
enough seats so that Republicans, let'ssay, would only have a one seat
majority, then if you get justone renegade Republican not going with the party,

(31:08):
that really changes everything. So eventhough being in the minority is a
lot worse than being in the majority, being in a small minority, like
a narrow gap, is a lotbetter than being behind by a lot.
So I don't think people are thinkingabout twenty twenty eight very much. I
think you're wrong about that second part. I think that absolutely. Jared Polis
is thinking about twenty twenty eight.Gretcha Whitmer is thinking about twenty twenty eight,

(31:32):
Gavin Newsom is thinking about twenty twentyeight. The political machine may not
be focused on twenty twenty eight yet, and I agree with that. The
people that are now trying to salvagewhatever they can in twenty twenty four,
they are definitely focused like a laseron November. But oh yeah, there
are people thinking about twenty twenty eight, how this works for them, how
this works against them. They knowthat Trump is going to be a one

(31:52):
term president because he's already served fouryears, so they're already I would not
be surprised if you didn't have Democratsjump into the presidential the day after the
inauguration, right, and again,just to be clear, I'm talking about
the Democratic National Committee and anything relatedto what's happening. I don't think that
the people who are making decisions aboutthis election, other than candidates who might

(32:14):
run in the future, those peopleare doing it based on twenty twenty eight.
Sure, Gretchen Whitmer is going totake care of Gretchen Whitmer, but
the head of the Democratic National Committeeis focused on twenty twenty four. So
agree this person says, but bubu buh. Let me see here this
one Biden drops out bad news forthe GOP. Dems pit Kamala good news

(32:37):
for the GOP, and that iskind of accurate. Absolutely accurate. It's
accurate. And I think the Demswe talked about this a lot already,
so we probably don't need to doa lot more. But they probably don't
have a choice. I would thinkthat again, Kama Harris is very weak.
But if you somehow became the Democraticpresidential nominee other than Kamala Harris and

(33:00):
knocked her out of the way.Do you think you're going to get the
black vote, the women vote,the whatever that you're already behind in and
you need to make up ground inorder to win the election. I just
don't see it. Ah. Idon't either, I really don't. I
mean, but I said earlier thisthis election has been so wild, like

(33:20):
nothing would surprise me, right,nothing that could happen next could surprise me.
Everything has just been crazy. Thatbeing said, you know, one
of the things that I wanted totalk and I brought this up to Ross
and as arrests. I really wantto make this point. There has been
a lot of scuttle butt about howKamala Harris got her start in politics.
It is not unknown that she hada relationship with married Willie Brown and he

(33:45):
suggested her for various roles and wasinstrumental in getting her elected attorney general.
And it is a really fun wayto talk about someone, funny to say
things like heals up Harris, whichis on our tech line right now.
But if you want to help DonaldTrump win this election, that is the
worst kind of conversation you can behaving because last time Trump suffered in suburbia

(34:12):
and heals up Harris does not workin suburbia, and those are where those
votes need to come from. It'sincredibly insulting. And when you look at
Kamala Harris's actual record or lack thereof, there's plenty of ammunition there without resulting
or devolving into the automatically sexist kindof comment. That's how it's seen by

(34:35):
people in the middle by independence,So resist the urge, talk about the
fact she has no record. Startthere. I would do two. I
mean, there's a lot of thingsto do. There's two things at the
top of my list that I woulddo if I were running against Kamala Harris.
One is remind everybody that she's theborders are and two is remind everybody
that she's Joe Biden's vice president.These people on the left seem to think

(34:55):
that she's going to run on herrecord, and these Democrats seem to I
think that Biden Harris have a recordthat the American people like, but they
don't. So I would just keeptying her to Biden and attach the inflation
to her and to Biden. Well, I mean from the campaign strategy messaging
point of view, The campaign strategyshifts from saying the Biden economy to saying

(35:21):
the Biden Harris economy. Exactly.Yeah, you just say, everything goes
from Biden to Biden Harris, BidenHarris, Biden Harris. You notice a
lot of people in the RNC didnot mention Joe Biden specifically by name.
Many did, many many did,but there were a few, the more
disciplined kind of messagers who did notmention Joe Biden. I think that they've
been preparing for this since the debate. So you'll see that shift in messaging

(35:45):
from Biden economy to Biden Harris economy, and it will be really seamless.
It's interesting how you talk about thedisciplined ones didn't mention Joe Biden in their
speeches. So Donald Trump's press peoplethe media before Donald Trump's speech that he
would not mention Joe Biden in thespeech, and they made a very very
big deal out of it. Andthen Trump mentioned Biden in the speech and

(36:08):
then said, oh, I wasn'tgonna mention Biden, but I won't mention
him again now. So he reallysaid it twice. So much for so
much for the discipline. Yeah,a listener question on the text line,
and folks, keep your texts comingat five six, six nine zero.
Mandy and I read all of themand respond to many of them, either
by text or on the air.What about Ohio's early ballot deadline thing?

(36:30):
Ohio fixed that, they changed theirlaw, they fixed that. There's a
little bit of controversy. The Democratsare trying to say, well, we
don't know if it's fixed. It'sfixed, and so if Democrats go ahead,
this is very in the weeds.If Democrats go ahead and try to
officially nominate Kamala Harris in a zoomcall in early August, two or three
weeks before the convention, they'll sayit was because it's this Ohio thing,

(36:53):
But it's not. What they're reallytrying to do is to make the Democratic
Convention just a faya complete and alot less interesting for Mandy when she's there.
I know, God, are youkidding me? This is now?
This has gone from something that Iwas wildly looking forward to and genuinely looking
forward to it for two reasons.One, the uncertainty around all of it,

(37:15):
the mystery, the build up,the whole you know, now there's
a lot of tension around this convention, which is going to make it far
more watchable. I bet you theyhave massive ratings. I mean, when
have people ever been like, ohmy gosh, I've got to tune in
for the DNC role call. Inthe history of my lifetime, that has
never happened. So now all ofa sudden, you've given new gravity and
new meaning to the role call.And if the Democrats, that's kind of

(37:37):
a double edged sword, right,if you have the zoom meeting and you
get all the delegates and super delegateson the zoom meeting and you do it
that way two weeks in advance,I don't I understand why they would want
to do that to kind of shutdown the controversy. This is what we've
done. Now, let the chipsfall where they may. But imagine the
tension leading up to that moment.Imagine the eyeballs that you would have that

(37:59):
would be here, you know,watching your convention to see your plans for
the United States. And I meanthat's really valuable media and a lot of
people don't pay attention to the conventions. And I get it. They're not
that good, right, They're kindof boring. I think the format needs
a jug if you ask me.But if you can milk that like Trump

(38:20):
milked jd Vance's announcement until right beforethe convention started, so then you only
had a few days to absorb it. You were ready for him to speak.
It was like this big announcement.He knows how to work that kind
of media fervor. And if theydon't do that, if they just let
it go to a broker convention wherepeople are going to cast their ballots,
it would be incredibly exciting, butit also puts them behind even further on

(38:42):
fundraising. It's a tough call,right, I mean, which one would
you want if you were running theif you were running the DNC, I'd
probably want the fundraising more. Actually, well okay, but okay, Now,
picture if you will, being alongtime Democrat who was very unhappy about
the super delegate situation in twenty sixteen. You were a Bernie Brow or a

(39:02):
Bernie girl, and Bernie got shutdown by the super delegates because they were
not about to run Bernie Sanders astheir candidate. Now fast forward to today.
What if you are a Biden guyor what if you are a someone
else guy or gal? And theDemocratic Party once again shuts out the world
to have this private meeting to choosetheir delegation. Then it gets really really

(39:24):
hard to argue that they truly whatThey're subverting democracy to save democracy. You
know, they're going to throw outthe votes of all those people who voted
for Biden to save democracy. There'sno good answer for Democrats here. There's
one good answer for Democrats, andthat is go to the convention and do

(39:45):
what at the convention, but makesure that every big name has said previously
correct, they will not accept thenomination. That is the best case scenario.
That is a good answer right there, Rob Ross, that's a fantastic
answer. But you know as wellas I do, that there are massive
egos in play here, and sometimeswrangling the massive egos is a lot harder

(40:06):
than being like, look, thisis the common sense way to solve this
problem where the entire party does wellbecause of it. Okay, except my
massive ego. I'm going to sharewith folks the first message that former President
Trump posted on Truth Social it's thesocial media platform that he owns a lot
of upon learning that Joe Biden wouldnot run for president. And this is

(40:27):
of course the new kinder gentler DonaldTrump seeking for national unity and I quote
crooked Joe Biden was not fit torun for president and is certainly not fit
to serve and never was. Heonly attained the position of president by lies,
fake news, and not leaving hisbasement. All those around him,
including his doctor and the media,knew that he wasn't capable of being president,

(40:50):
and he wasn't. And now lookwhat he's done to our country with
millions of people coming across our border, totally unchecked and unvetted, many from
prisons, mental institutions, and recordnumbers of terrorists. We will suffer greatly
because of his presidency, but wewill remedy the damage he has done very
quickly make America great again. SoI'll just make one quick comment and then
I want your response, Mandy.So my take on this is it's Trump

(41:15):
on his social media platform being ridiculouslytrumpy, even more than he needs to
be. But it's a legit issue, the open border, and with her
as borders are, it's interesting thatthe border was the main thing he focused
on in this. Well, Iwill say, whoever is behind the scenes
running the messaging for Trump and theRNC I do think he's listening on what

(41:39):
to talk about, maybe not exactlyhow to talk about it, but I
do think he is listening to thepolling and saying, look, this is
a big deal. A vast majorityof Americans want to secure the southern border,
and a vast majority of Americans wantreal immigration reform to allow people who
want to come here legally and takeadvantage of economic opportunity to be able to
do so. Those two things aresolid across the board both parties, Republicans

(42:02):
and Democrats, we both want thosethings. Right. So he's not crazy.
I mean, he's maybe a lotof things, but he's not stupid.
And now he's running with that thosetalking points. I think it's very
very smart. As long as KamalaHarris is the nominee. That's a great
attack point. Great What do youmake of the fact that Barack Obama put

(42:27):
out a very long statement that Iwon't read right now, in which he
thanked Joe Biden for his years ofservice and said this must have been a
very difficult decision, and then hewent on to say, I'm sure the
Democrats will put together a process thatgives us a qualified nominee. He did
not endorse Kamala Harris, and thatwas real silence was deafening on that one.

(42:50):
The fact that her name was noteven name checked at all, not
even a and thanks to Vice PresidentHarris, I mean nothing at all.
That's indicative that I think Joe Bidenmight have endorsed Kamala Harris on his way
out for two reasons. One becausehe wanted to thank the Congressional Black Caucus
for their really unwavering support. Twoas a giant middle finger to the party

(43:15):
apparatus that just pushed him out right. And I'll I think those are both
correct, and I'll add one moreand again, neither Mandy nor I are
very very well tied in to thesmoky back rooms of Democratic Party politics.
But it seems wish. Yeah,it seems pretty clear that there's very little
love lost. Again, I don'twant to say so much between Biden and

(43:37):
Obama personally, they seem to getalong, but the Biden people and the
Obama people do not like each other, do not get along, have no
interest in helping each other. Andit also wouldn't surprise me if Obama doesn't
like Biden quite as much as hemade it sound like that in that letter,
But that's nothing. Now. Ithink that there's an aspect of that

(44:00):
relationship that is upside down. Andby that I mean that as the elder
statesman, you would think that JoeBiden would be the paternal figure in that
relationship, right, he would bethe one doling out advice, he would
be the one behind the scenes.Yet it feels like during the Biden administration
it has been exactly the reverse thatObama is the paternal figure in that We've

(44:21):
seen it when they've done events together, even at the White House, where
everyone ignores Joe Biden and rushes overto President Obama. So it's not a
normal relationship in that sense. AndI do think that Obama probably has expressed
some frustration behind the scenes with JoeBiden that has either gotten back to him

(44:44):
or he has felt it. Andyou know, I don't know, maybe
they're BFFs, but I've never feltthat they had a relationship of equals ever,
and now that they've both been president, you would think they are equals.
But even now where President Obama isno longer president and President Trump or
President Biden is president, it stillfeels like Obama is top dog in that

(45:06):
in that relationship, right, Andyou know Obama was always massively popular,
I mean not with Republicans, butgenerally speaking, and Biden was never even
really moderately popular. Right, Hegot through as sort of a default thing.
Back in twenty twenty. Democrats justwanted kind of a boring candidate who
appeared somewhat normal because they thought that'sall they needed to beat Donald Trump.

(45:30):
And they turned out to be rightabout that. They also got the benefit
of COVID hitting, so Joe Bidencould stay in his basement. But this
is not twenty twenty. No,it's not, and they have to face
a new reality. Unfortunately. Iwas sitting here trying to think ross,
what does Kamala Harris run on?What is her campaign strategy and message?

(45:52):
Does she just try and pick itup wherever it is now? Because what
they're doing right now trying to tellus over and over and over again,
Look, all of these indicators inthe economy are amazing, except we're paying
grocery prices that are twenty percent higher. Interest rates are three times higher than
they were when Trump was in office, Gas prices are everything's more expensive.

(46:14):
No sign of any kind of retreatwages are not keeping track with that.
I mean, there's so many whenpeople think about their own personal economy,
there's so many things in there thatthey're not good. So that message is
not working necessarily. And as morestates are putting the codification of abortion on
their ballots, that is going tobe a moot point as long as whoever's

(46:37):
at the top of the ticket saysI'm not going to sign a federal abortion
band. And I think Trump hasbeen pretty clear on that. Yeah,
he's been very clear on it.And getting back to your first question there,
what's she going to run on?I suspect that she will run on
the exact same stuff that Joe Bidenhas been running on, which hasn't been
working. But I don't know whatelse she has. They think they can

(46:57):
run on their record and they can't. She may try to play up that
she would be the first woman president. I've never thought that kind of identity
politics works all that well. Butno, although it did work with Barack
Obama. But I think that bothcampaigns keep doing exactly what they were doing

(47:20):
before, except that the Trump campaignstops talking about Joe Biden being too old,
and everything else stays the same.I think, hey, let's share
this with you, Mandy. Thisis a new post from Donald Trump.
My debate with crooked Joe Biden,the worst president in the history of the
United States, was slated to bebroadcast on fake news ABC, the home
of George Slapadopolis, sometime in September. Now that Joe has not surprisingly has

(47:46):
quit the race, and that hasin the original thing both times, I
didn't say it wrong. Now thatJoe has not surprisingly has quit the race,
I think the debate with whomever theradical left Democrats choose should be held
on news rather than on the verybiased ABC. Thank you, DJT.
The funniest thing about that is DaveLower called me the intrepid Dave Lower,

(48:08):
my former producers and retired called meearlier and he said, look, you
know what, when Trump agreed tothose debates, he was behind. He
needed the debates more than Joe Bidendid. Well, guess what, Oh
have the turns have tabled? Ross, Yes, And now we've got Donald
Trump doing exactly what Dave Lower saidhe should, which is say, look,

(48:29):
if you want to debate me,you want a piece of meat,
You're gonna do it on my terms, on my network. With my people,
just like I did for you guys. Absolutely, and that was a
pretty good metaphor. One of oneof the ones I like is from the
movie Airplane. The foots. Onthe other hand, Now, and you
know, after the first debate,before it became quite as it was pretty

(48:50):
obvious already that Biden would have togo. But what I said on my
show is Trump should cancel the seconddebate and say it's not fair to the
country to keep Joe Biden up thatlate. And yeah, we should say
right, but there's no But seriously, there's no upside for Trump and having
another debate. But at this point, now that we know that it's Harris,

(49:12):
there could be some downside in cancelingit. I think he would love
to get out of it. Andthis is a way out of it by
saying, all right, now we'regoing to do it on my terms,
if you want to do it.I think it's pretty clever. Oh.
I think it's very smart. Andthe gauntlet has been thrown now, so
now we can tell ABC to gopound sand and move on. I think
it's a very very smart thing.This for my friend the win, Yogi,

(49:34):
How in the hell can the Democratsclaim the first woman president when they
can't define a woman. That froma defined woman asking in seriousness. That
actually came up at least half adozen times during the Republican National Convention.
Yea, one speaker after the othersay, oh, the Democrats talk about
these women's issues and they can't evendefine what a what a woman is.
I don't know that that's a winnereither. I get it, but I

(49:58):
don't think it's a winner. Well, And I do want to remind people
you're listening to Ross Kaminsky and MandyConnell. We're gonna be here for another
hour on the other side of thebreak. But I want to remind people
that Steve just sent in and said, why haven't we seen a written statement
from Joe Biden. There is thathe put out a lengthy letter. You
can find it on Twitter. Heput out a lengthy letter. He has
not made any public statements. Inthe letter, he says that he will

(50:20):
be speaking about this later in theweek. I'm guessing after he's had time
to have some chocolate chip ice cream. It is National ice Cream Days,
so that's like a it'll they justput a dagger in the heart of the
man's favorite holiday. And on thesame day, so he'll have to get
over the at two brutus that he'sprobably feeling right now and get get back,

(50:42):
you know, to us later.But there is a statement out the
listener. Listener says on the textline Joe dropped out on National ice Cream
Day. Fate loves irony, Fateloves irony. That that is a great
point for a guy who loves icecream as much as he does to have
to drop out on national Forever onforever. You're listening to a Ross coming
and Mandy Connell. We are indeedlive with you on KOA bringing you this

(51:04):
massive national news because this is whatwe do for you here on eight to
fifty KOA in Denver. Take quickbreak out to Joel Hill and for news
Mandy and I'll be back for anotherhour with you. Keep the texts coming
at five, six, six ninezero. All right, good afternoon.
I'm Ross Kaminski, joined by myfriend and colleague Mandy Connell. By the
way, you can hear me nineam to noon weekdays. You can hear

(51:28):
Mandy noon to three pm weekdays.We are of course discussing the news of
the day that Joe Biden has announcedthat he will not run for reelection,
joining us for a little analysis,at a little thoughtful feedback on what he
thinks of all this is Michael Brown, former deput under Secretary. I don't
want to get the title wrong,Michael, because I'll I'll just call you,

(51:50):
I'll just call you sir. OhGod, and I know, I
know. And anyway, So,Michael, what was the first thing that
came into your head that you thoughtis different from what everybody else is thinking.
I don't know if it's different ornot. By my first thought was
I hadn't read the letter yet.I just heard the news because I was

(52:13):
driving back from New Mexico, andmy first thought was, if you're if
you're incapable of running a campaign becauseof your whatever your illness or problem is,
you're incapable of being president and actuallyshould have been a resignation letter.
You know, Mandy and I talkedabout this a little bit earlier, and
I think there are two aspects tothis. One is what's best for the

(52:35):
country, and that is number one, what's best for the country, And
then two is the political side.And I think all of us have been
around politics long enough, but especiallyyou, Michael, to be a little
bit cynical that politicians might actually bethinking about what's best for the country.
So when when Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson came out and said what
you just said. He came outand said, Joe Biden should resign the

(52:55):
presidency. Do you think that heand other Republicans called for that or or
doing it because they really believe it, or for some political purpose or both.
Well, I tend to think they. I wouldn't believe they're doing it
for the good of the country.Because think about this, if Biden were
to actually resign, it's no longeryou can't call her Kamala anymore. You

(53:21):
can't call her vice president. Shebecomes Madam President. That carries a lot
more weight than her current position.So I would think that it's actually detrimental
to Republicans if Biden does it.But I really sincerely were a national security
country. If this guy is sophysical and capable of doing that, that

(53:46):
adl that's a good think, it'sa very good word. So ad that
he can't do both, I justthink you should resign. We just have
to ask Seson Ping not to doanything naughty outside of the hours of ten
am. To four pm Eastern time, and then everything will be okay for
the next six months, well forthat matter of the who Thys or Hezbollah,

(54:07):
the Iranians, Iranians and the mosI mean, think about all of
the hotspots in the world right now, and people tend to I mean,
we're so wrapped up in the politicalgame. Did we forget the world right
now is in a very dangerous andprecarious position. I think, yeah.
I mean that Michael is the worstpart of this entire thing. And you

(54:29):
know, we can have kind ofthe political machinery conversations, but ultimately one
has to wonder who's running the country, what is their ideology, what do
they want to have happen? BecauseI am less convinced than ever that it
is Joe Biden, and we arenow beholden to an administration where we're not
really sure who's pulling the levers ofpower. And that's something that I think

(54:50):
everybody should be uncomfortable about. Iagree, and to my point, it's
actually not in as Republicans, it'sactually not in our I for Biden to
resign and for her to become thevice president. But I do believe in
our national interest that really is whatshould happen. Yep, yeah, I
agree. I agree as well.I think in addition to all of that,

(55:13):
I would fully understand, which doesn'tmean I think it's the right answer.
If Joe Biden, just as amatter of pride, after the long
career that he's had, does notwant to go out as the only president
other than Richard Nixon to resign,right, And I totally agree. And
so that gets us back to thepolitics. And he's not going to do

(55:35):
that. And I can now bemister cinical and say he's not going to
do that for those very reasons.He does not want to be the only
person to resign other than Richard Nixon. If we'd had somebody else besides Nixon,
he might do it, but becauseit's Nixon, he doesn't want that
taint of him. I will notethat Congressman Joe Nogose from Colorado has just

(55:59):
Endorsedamala Harris, so has Governor JaredPolus, and it seems like the Democrats
are trying to circle the wagons aroundHarris absolutely as fast as possible. Even
as Jake Tapper is reporting and Iquote, a bunch of possible Democratic presidential
candidates are waiting to see how thenext few hours go and assessing the degree

(56:22):
to which the Democratic Party coalesces aroundKamala Harris, while also giving President Biden
his day. Michael any thoughts onthat. Yes, I mean that's new
news for me. I really kindof expected that there might be a little
bit of a fight for this nominationbecause the Clinton's have endorsed her, Obama

(56:45):
has not, Pelosi has not.That could be they just want to kind
of let things settle and simmer alittle bit, as opposed to jumping in
right away and endorsing somebody versus somebodyelse. I just find it interesting that,
in particular Obama, who probably startedall of this by simply grabbing his

(57:07):
wrist and putting his arm on hisshoulder and walking him off the stage,
I think told us the truth ofwhat was really going on. And so
somebody someone, and I wish itwould be the media, but I know
that's a joke. If somebody wouldask how long how long have all of
you known that this was going onlike this? How long? How long

(57:30):
have you about this? Yeah?And I mean that's a big question that
needs to be answered, and youwould expect that that is going to be
a question ask of Kamala Harris aswell. I mean, do you think
she bears any responsibility for the obviouscharade that is being pulled on the American
people for the last year? Oh? Obviously, absolutely, I think she
does. And I think that's whysomeone should ask her almost you know,

(57:57):
why did you know? And whendid you know it? Yeah? Yeah,
she's been in a very tough spot. I mean, I don't feel
bad for her, but she's beenin a tough spot because she's gotta be
a good soldier. But she knowshe's probably going down, but she can't
look like she wants to wants himto go down, because she can't look
like she's gunning for the job.It's a it's a difficult spot. But

(58:19):
on the other hand, you know, when you pick someone to be your
running mate just because she's got girlparts in a good ten, you're not
necessarily gonna get you know, thestar player, right right? You know
what's funny, I've got real O. Go ahead, Michael, Well,
as you can say, again,going back to the craft politics of it,
That's why I say that if theywere really and I do believe that,

(58:42):
I mean, everybody everybody runs foroffices kind an eatgo and everybody wants
power. But I would think thatDemocrats would think this through, and maybe
they will eventually. But Madam VicePresident is a lot more uh much more
stature than Tomalin. Yeah. I'vegot the real Clear Politics website up right
now. It's an aggregator site,so you just get the headlines. I

(59:05):
just want to share the first fewrows right. The first second is in
the best interests of the country,I'll stand down, focus on being president
by Joe Biden. But then thisBiden passes the torch and ends reelection bid
endorses Harris, and then there isKamala Harris. I will do everything in
my power to unite our party andbeat Trump, and then jd vance.
If Biden not cognitively fit for reelection, he can't be president, and then

(59:28):
Democratic consensus solidifies around Harris. Sothese are just the afternoon headlines. So
it's going to be an absolute slugfestfor the next couple of days. Now,
Michael, what do you think aboutthe rumors that the Democratic Party is
actually going to have a role callvia a zoom meeting with all of the
delegates so they can kind of putthis to bed. God. I hope

(59:51):
they do. I just think thatwould be wonderful, because first of all,
just think about the idea that we'renow all doing things by zoom,
and we're going to have a delegatecount by zoom and everybody and I forget
how many delegates they have, butyou know, fifteen hundred or whatever it
is, and they're gonna all voteby zoom, and they're gonna be some
They're gonna be like, well,wait a minute, why are we doing

(01:00:12):
this right now? So I'm goingto withhold my vote. I want to
wait till I get to the convention. Some people will be like falling right
in line. The phone lines arebeing burned up tonight and they will be
for the next seventy to ninety sixdollars. I suspect that they won't do
that early meeting at this point becausethey don't have a legal reason that they
need to, and they were reallytrying to push it, trying to save

(01:00:34):
Joe Biden, which was a dumbidea. But I just think, man,
I think it looks so bad ifthey do it first. And of
course I think also they know thatMandy's going to the DNC and they want
it to be as much fun forher as possible. So I think they're
going to keep it until then.Yeah, oh yeah, that's probably what
it is, just to make itexciting for me. I appreciate them.

(01:00:55):
I appreciate you all who are doingthat. Go ahead, Michael Well,
and I hope that for you too. Because so I was texting my back
and forth with my daughter and shehadn't seen the news yet, and my
text to her was, well,now you're finally going to get to understand
what your dad's always told you aboutnineteen sixty eight. Yeah, and she
wrote back instead, and she wroteback and said what and then didn't.

(01:01:17):
She almost instantaneously texted me back andsaid duh. And I was like,
yeah, it's going to be aslugfest. It really is about this.
Yeah, the Palestinian protesters, you'vegot. AOC has come out and I
heard now again, I'm kind ofaticate. I'm being so busy today that

(01:01:39):
I heard AOC say say something aboutshe unequivocally is not behind Kamala Harris right
now, that she needs to understandmore about what her options are. So
she's holding out and what she holdingout for because everybody's trying to grab a
little piece of this power right nowbecause there is a power vacuum. Yeah,

(01:02:02):
I mean that's I'm sure that's true. I haven't seen that from her,
but I believe it. I wouldnote that, and I mentioned this
earlier that at the DNC, almostall the delegates are going to be people
who were there originally for Biden,and so they're mostly not AOC Bernie Brow
Elizabeth Warren types. And in thatsense, they're barely even Kamala Harris types

(01:02:23):
because she's really kind of a leftwing wacko. And ya, so it'll
it'll be gosh, this is whata time to be a talk show host.
Michael. Michael, I've got aquestion for you now. I know
you remember twenty sixteen with the superdelegates sweeping in to make sure Bernie did
not get the nomination. If thathappens again, let's just say that Democrats

(01:02:46):
rank and file Democrats decide they aregoing to throw their weight behind a different
candidate other than Kamala Harris, whichmakes getting that two hundred and fifty million
dollar bank that is sitting in theBiden Harris account right now to another case
in it much more complicated. Ifthe super delegates swoop in again and give
US candidate Harris against the wishes ofthe delegates. Do the delegates remember twenty

(01:03:09):
sixteen or do they just kind oftake this as a one off and move
on. No, I think they'llremember. I think they'll read. I
think because most delegates tend to goyear after years. I don't know what
their turnover rate is, but Iknow in the r n C the turnover
rate's not very great. So it'llbe basically the same people again and again.

(01:03:30):
Even if it's not the same people. Delegates don't like being told what
to do, right they they theywent to their their caucus, they went
to their convention, They did everythingso that they could go to Chicago and
cast their ballot and their and theirdiehards for whomever. And now for a
super delegate for the elites, becausenow we're in a we're in a country

(01:03:52):
now where it's it's elites versus ordinarypeople, and so it's just rise up
populism that we see all over theworld and we're experiencing it right here.
And I think that would I thinkthat would backfire on the DNC quite frankly,
I'd love to watch it, becauseI think that will make for your
for your old Mandy, you'll havea blast. Yeah. All you have

(01:04:15):
to do is go around to finda delegate that's got a big hat for
somebody else and interview them about youknow, what do you think about a
super delegate? My gosh, it'sgonna be vomit. They're just gonna tell
you everything about why they don't likethe superdelegate. It is. It is
quite remarkable how in recent years,not just in this delegate thing, but
just in the big picture of politics, that the Democrats have become the party
of the elites rather than the Republicans. Michael Brown, I know you have

(01:04:39):
to get going. Thanks for makingtime for us, folks. You can
hear Michael Brown each and every weekdayat six am to ten am over on
our sister station six thirty K HowMichael, Before you go, Mandy has
one more quick thing. Who's youruh? Who's your pick? If you
have to pick right now? Andlet's say Kamala is the nominee, who's
her veep? Uh? Shapiro fromPennsylvania. Yeah, you think? I

(01:05:00):
think maybe him or Mark Kelly outof Arizona. Those are my two options
right now. Okay, So Iwant to ask now, I want to
ask you a question. Okay,So the woman, would you want a
big, giant guy like Mark Kellystanding next to you? Serious? You
know what? I did not.I'm not as shallow as you are,

(01:05:23):
Michael. So I didn't even thinkabout that. But you are correct.
You are absolutely right about that.She needs a small fellow. There'll be
a tiny ticket as long as youtell me I'm right. That's all I
care about. You are right,sir, Thank you, Michael, appreciate
it. You bet. Take careof guy. All right, Folks again,
you can hear Michael six to tenon our sister station six thirty k

(01:05:44):
HOW on weekday mornings. Mandy,we had several minutes until we'll have our
last news break of our evening conversation. Here, let me ask you something
along the lines of what you justasked, Michael, what do you think
the odds are again, as yousaid, assuming Harris is the nominee of
her picking a woman as her runningmate. I hate to say this,

(01:06:08):
but I think that's a loser ticket. I don't think that we are going
to have a ticket of two womenin this country for the foreseeable future.
I wish I didn't feel that way, but I just don't think the United
States of America is ready for aticket that has two broads at the top,
especially with older voters. And youknow how powerful older voters are ross

(01:06:30):
because they are reliable voters, right, their vote is always going to be
cast. So I think that wouldbe a much harder lift. I maybe
you know, there's been a lotof talk about Gretchen Whitmer. She's kind
of tough, but I don't thinkit sells. I hate to say it,
I just I don't think I thinkit would be a bad strategic move.
To be perfectly honest, I agreecompletely. And for those folks who

(01:06:55):
joined me and Mandy part way throughour conversation, I'll just take on this
one question that's come on a couplemore times in texts, what about somebody
named Obama being the vice presidential runningmate? And my answer and Mandy's answer
to that, is why on God'sGreen Earth would either one of those people
want that job? They live wantto be second Banana, Second Banana,

(01:07:15):
k Kamala Harris while they live aluxury rock star life with houses all over
the place, and you know,half a million dollars or a million dollars
per speech and just doing everything theywant to do. There's libisadry, it
doesn't make any sense. And rossyou cannot overstate the amount of influence that

(01:07:38):
the Obamas still have within the DemocraticParty. So there's no doubt in my
mind that they their fingerprints are allover a lot of the policy positions in
the Biden White House. They havea tremendous amount of influence with people in
the House and the Senate, andthey don't have to face any of the
blowback, right, they still getto be, to use your favorite rasputin

(01:08:01):
in the ear of leadership without havingto suffer the slings and arrows of actually
being in leadership. So I'm notsaying, and I don't want to make
it sound like Joe Biden is apuppet. I think as he goes too
big to ever be a puppet.But they do still have an outsized influence
in the party, which is whyit's so significant that Obama wrote that really
long you know, just Joe Bidenis the greatest president ever without mentioning her

(01:08:27):
one single time. That was notan accident, That was an on purpose
to put many on the party onnotice that Obama is not behind this as
of yet, but maybe he's justwaiting so we can sweep in later with
a massive endorsement and save her campaignor something. I don't know. Here's
a funny listener text, and folks, keep your text coming at five six,
six nine zero. Ross and Mandy, imagine how furious Joe Biden was

(01:08:50):
to find out on the news thathe had dropped out of the twenty twenty
four presidential race. Well, they'llsee it in the morning after ten.
Anyway, this is another one thatI didn't think about. Mike is right,
she will go with the little Jewishguy and suffer the protest. Now.
Is this one of those things whereyou take the pro hamas wing of
the of the Democratic Party for grantedbecause you know that they're going to vote

(01:09:15):
against Donald Trump? Ooh, II don't think that's true. I mean,
I think you know that they won'tvote for Donald Trump. But that's
not the same as saying the Democrats, right, Well, that's what I'm
saying, they'll vote against Donald Trump. They're just gonna take it for granted
that where are they going to go? It's kind of like hardcore pro life
people, where are you gonna go? I don't know. I think some

(01:09:36):
of those really hardcore pro Hamas typesare every bit as likely to not vote.
But but you know, Pennsylvania.Philadelphia has a pretty significant Jewish population.
I don't know if nominating the Jewishgovernor of Pennsylvania is enough to save
that state. But again, Idon't even if it were, I don't

(01:09:59):
think it's enough to save any otherstate. And also I think people are
putting maybe a little bit too muchemphasis on who the running mate is.
Agree right, I mean people,Yeah, people rarely, rarely, rarely
vote on the basis of vice president. When it does happen, it's usually
only when it's a negative. It'sI don't know that you can ever point

(01:10:19):
to a case. I shouldn't saynever. I do think. I do
think Mike Pence helped Donald Trump alot. Oh with the evangelicals a lot.
I believe that's angelicals. But yeah, I just don't in this particular
situation. I think that a VP, you could pick a VP candidate who
won't hurt Harris. But I don'tthink you're gonna be able to pick one

(01:10:41):
that's gonna make a big difference peopleare gonna be focused on Harris. I
don't either. I don't think thatthere's gonna be a difference maker here.
But you know, how how bigis the pro Homas wing of the party.
Let's take Pennsylvania out of it,right, Let's just take Pennsylvania aside.
Do you risk alienating a lot ofyoung people because this is this would
be a huge problem, who arenot really all that likely to vote anyway.

(01:11:02):
Statistically, young people vote in amuch lower rate than older people.
People over fifty five are reliable voters. They're going to show up, They're
going to cast their ballot. Anybodyunder thirty it's like, you know what,
I'll vote in the next one.Yeah, I don't like either as
I'll just vote in the next one. So do you alienate the young people
that are currently with their heads fullof mush running around college campuses? And

(01:11:24):
how big is that contingent? Really? You know what percentage? Are we
talking? One percent, five percent? I don't know how big it is.
Just because they're loud doesn't mean they'reall that big. Yeah, And
if this recent poll out of Michiganfrom the last forty eight hours is right,
that showed Trump up on Biden byseven, and that's just a staggering
number. So if Biden, ifKamala Harris cuts that in half and is

(01:11:47):
down by three and a half,that's still a lot. Biden won that
state, and so I don't thinkthat you were going to move the needle
by nearly that much, which witheither the pro Hamasa of the population or
with the Jewish segment of yeah,the population. So I just I think
it's a lot of fun talking aboutwho the VP can it will be,

(01:12:09):
and I enjoy it, but Idon't know that it's actually going to make
a difference in the race. Iagree, I say with jd Vance.
You know, we just talked aboutthis from the RNC. It's like the
people. Some people were super excitedabout jd Vance. Some people were like,
hey, you know, he's beena Senator for five minutes and I'm
not excited. But ultimately they allwere like, but I'm voting for Trump,
right, I'm not voting for jdVance. I'm voting for Trump.

(01:12:29):
So to your point, if they'regoing to vote for Harris, the VP
really should just be someone who doesn'thurt things, or someone who can guarantee
or at least get her closer inone of these swing states to get her
over the top. I still thinkMark Kelly's a good choice. Size A
side. Okay, she's already gonnahave to. Kamala is a very small
woman. She's not very tall.Next to Joe Biden, she was great

(01:12:51):
because he's also not that tall.So I don't know. I women have
to go through this weird, sortof weird sort of evaluation that is,
okay, are you are you?Do you appear strong enough but not too
strong? You don't want to beshrill? You know? Do you appear
like you're gonna have backbone? Isthat too bitchy? You know? It's

(01:13:14):
like what are we doing here?So she's got a very delicate sort of
tight rope to walk, one thatshe's already grabbed and shaken really hard.
So it's moving really quickly, folks. If you want to play along in
our nerdy like politics, Fantasy BaseballVP draft text us at five six six
nine zero with who do you thinkKamala Harris? You could answer this either

(01:13:38):
way. Who do you think shewill pick? Or who do you think
she should pick? I don't carewhich way you answer and give an explanation
like why do you think that?Text us at five sixty six nine zero,
and Mandy and I will share someof your texts on the air.
Let's take a quick check of newswith Joel Hillen. Good afternoon. I'm
Ros Kaminski. You're listening to eightfifty Koway in Denver. You can hear
me nine am to noon weekdays.You can hear my friend and colleague Mandy

(01:14:01):
Connell, who joins us as wellfrom noon to three on weekdays. Rob
Dawson also in studio with me,and we'll get to Rob in a second.
Mandy, I noticed on Twitter thatall of the Democratic members of the
House of Representatives from Colorado have alreadyendorsed Kamala Harris. Yes, and it's

(01:14:23):
not just them. I just founda list of all the Democrats that have
endorsed Kamala Harris so far. Letme do it really, really quickly.
It's quite lengthy. Former President BillClinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have
endorsed Governor Jared Polis, Senator TimKine of Virginia, Senator Mark Warner of
Virginia, Senator Patty Murray of Washington, Representative Nanette Barragon of California. Representative

(01:14:45):
Jared Huffman of California. The chairsof the Congressional Black Caucus and the CBC's
Political Action Committee have endorsed Representative JamalBowman, Ted lu Promila, Jay Appeal
of Washington, ilhan Omar Maxwell,Alejandro Frost of Florida, Jared Moskowitz of
Florida, Tammy Baldwin, Representative JimCliburn, John Kerry, former Secretary of

(01:15:09):
State, Representative Adam Schiff of California, Senator, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona,
Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, GovernorRoy Cooper of North Carolina, Senator,
And it goes on and on andon and on and on. Everybody's
trying to get ahead of this becausethey want this done absolutely. And I
note again it's Twitter's wife and verifiedit. But I see a report that

(01:15:30):
Governor Gavin Newsom has also endorsed KamalaHarris for president. So it's been a
bit of a challenge to get commentsfrom local Democrats or local elected Democrats.
But Rob Dawson has been on thecase and got an interesting interview. Yes,
Ross, we just talked with theColorado Democratic Party chair Shad Mehrab interesting

(01:15:51):
conversation with him about the fundraising andthe support for Vice President Kamala Harris.
First of all, I asked himhis reaction to the news. President Biden's
decision to step out of this raceis a stunning act of courage and patriotism
that frankly, is all too lackingin American politics these days. And he's
setting a high bar for what weshould expect from our politician. Decades of

(01:16:13):
service have made this country better off, and he's been a friend of Colorado.
That's do you feel the timing ofthis has put the national party and
the state party in a bad spotright now towards November. Well, let
me be clear. We were goingto beat Donald Trump with Joe Biden,
and we're still going to beat himthis fall. We've been building infrastructure and

(01:16:33):
campaigns that are not just built simplyto win this fall, but to create
long term infrastructure that make sure thatwe are successful in the years to come.
All right, let's just jump inhere for a second, Mandy,
and then we'll get more audio again. That gentleman as a chairman of the
of the Colorado Democratic Party, andI know it's easy to kind of,
you know, giggle a little bitwhen he said we were going to beat

(01:16:55):
Donald Trump with Joe Biden. Butthat's his job to to say things like
that. Well, it's his job, and in Colorado, it's probably a
safe bet, yes, to saythat you're going to beat Donald Trump in
Colorado. And you know, theDemocratic machine here is so much better than
the Republican machine and I have togive them a lot of credit for that.
Even though I disagree with him onpolicy, I greatly admire the functionality

(01:17:18):
of the Democratic Party in Colorado.So it doesn't surprise me that he'd say
that. But yeah, it's hisjob, and they're always here to kind
of put up positive spin. Iwant to hear the rest of what he
has to say. Let's go,Rob, does the party support Vice President
Kamala Harris? Are you ready tomake that statement right now? Well?

(01:17:39):
So, one thing that I thinkeverybody needs to keep in mind is under
President Biden's leadership, We've created hundredsof thousands of jobs here in Colorado,
invested billions in projects across the state, creating amazing infrastructure jobs and removal energy
projects. We've cut the cost ofprescription drugs and healthcare for nearly a million
people in the state, and hecould not have done that without Kamala Harris
right there by his side. Andso we're about the opportunity her Canadacy provides

(01:18:01):
for us to not only beat DonaldTrump as we were planning, but grow
and expand the party and continue thisrecord of success. You're watching other lawmakers
and your party make statements and theyall seem to be saying something similar to
you. Are Are you pleased withthe lawmakers in this state with the way
they're striking the tone Right now?We have the absolute best federal and state

(01:18:23):
delegation in the country and I'm justgrateful to serve alongside them. Does this
infrastructure that you're talking about that you'vebuilt, I mean, does it work
for mister Biden, Does it workfor Kamala Harris? Does it work for
who who our running mate may be? It works for Color Radden's, it
works for everybody who wants to participate. Just this morning, we launched over

(01:18:44):
thirty canvassers to go knock on doorsto make sure that you Derek Carveo was
successful as well as Canada's up anddown the ballot, and so we're building
campaigns that are focused not just onour local races, but scale up to
make sure we have wins at thetop of the ticket as well. And
so this grassrooms energy, this grapsus incerastructure we're building is like nothing we've
seen in the country, and we'reexcited to deploy it to make sure we're
successful this fall. Do you encourageother people across the Democratic Party, maybe

(01:19:12):
even outside of Colorado, to getbehind Vice President Kamala Harris because the media,
at least we're trying to analyze statementshere and not everyone seems to be
in full endorsement of her in theirstatements. Can you talk about that.
One of the things that I appreciateabout the Democratic Party is, unlike the
Republicans, right now, we arenot a cultive personality that bows down to

(01:19:34):
kiss Trump's ring or anybody's ring.We actually have conversations about who are the
best leaders to take us into thefuture. Kamala Harris has a long track
record of success, and I expectthat everyone's going to be very excited to
support her should be be the nominee. Right now, we don't have any
indication that she's going to have acontest because she's built a wide coalition of

(01:19:56):
folks who are excited for her leadership, who trust her leadership, I know,
ready to beat Donald Trump this fall, and so we'll wait to see
if there is anybody else who jumpsin. But part of the benefit of
being a Democrat is that we allowthese types of conversations to appen in our
party. Right, let's pause itthere. Head is about to explain what
track record track record of success.I mean, I'm not trying to be

(01:20:18):
saucy here, but she failed spectacularlyrunning to be president. Had she not
been chosen as vice president, shewould still be just another senator in California,
Right, I mean, I'm genuinelycurious as to what exactly that track
record is and I'd like to havean answer to that. And this has

(01:20:40):
been what the Democrats separate from attackingDonald Trump. They have been trying to
run on Joe Biden's record, andI find it, yeah, very ah.
I mean, they don't have dumbpeople running these campaigns. And if
they're running on our record, theymust know that their record isn't very popular.
But they don't Other than beating upTrump, they don't have anything.

(01:21:04):
I mean, what else do youhave as a politician who has a record
except your record in attacking the otherguy, and you can't possibly win.
Well, I shouldn't say that.In most cases you can't win only by
attacking the other guy. Well,I will tell you that the new strategy
is Project twenty twenty five by theHeritage Foundation. It's all about Project twenty

(01:21:25):
twenty five because there's one reason theyput it out two reasons they put it
out there. One, they canpull quote enough stuff to make it a
boogeyman, but it's also long enoughthat normal people will never read it.
Right. Project twenty twenty five ison the internet. When you listen to
any Democrat talking, whether it isa media person, whether it is a
Democrat legislator, the final words ofevery single sentence right now are about Project

(01:21:46):
twenty twenty five. That's the boogeyman. That's what they're running against. Right
They don't have anything to run forright now, because to your point,
Ross, they are not They're ina bubble, and they're not talking to
real people that are going to thegrocery store and still having sticker shock.
They're not talking to people were goingto the gas pump and having sticker shock.
They're not talking to young people whohave been priced out of the real
estate market because interest rates are sohigh when housing prices of skyrocketed, so

(01:22:12):
it's like they're insulated from the painthat people are actually feeling. And whereas
you know, Bill Clinton was themaster at looking into the camera and saying
I feel your pain. Instead oftaking that tact and saying we're still recovering
the economy from COVID and we can'twait to show you what's next. They're
trying to tell us, don't believeyour own lion eyes and your empty wallet.

(01:22:32):
We're doing great. Just ask usone other response or thought about something.
Shad Marie, the chairman of theDemocratic Party in Colorado, said a
couple of minutes ago in Rob's conversationand then we'll get the rest of the
audio. He talked about CD eightYadira Caraveo in that race that's going to
be probably the closest race in thestate. But we'll talk about the other
one in a second against Gabe Evans, and that's a seat that a Republican

(01:22:56):
can win. And of course KamalaHarris is extremely unlikely to have any significant
positive coat tails. She might nothave the extremely negative coat tails that Joe
Biden had, but like that's thekind of race that the State Party does
need to focus on to try tosave that. And CD three with Adam
Fish running against Jeff Heard and AdamFrisch is going to be on My show

(01:23:17):
at ten o'clock tomorrow to talk abouthis race. He was one of the
early Democrats to come out and sayBiden should get out. But that is
where the Dems need to focus.I want to answer a Texter and then
we'll get back to the interview.It said Mandy the functionality of the Democratic
Party. The only reason where ablue state is because thousands of Liberals have
moved here from other states. Ifonly that were true. But the Democratic

(01:23:40):
Party here, as part of theblueprint that started over a decade ago,
they have built an operation that runsin the background and they're doing things like
door knocking right now in the eighthCongressional district. They just got a bunch
of volunteers to go up to theeighth Congressional District and knock on doors for
Yadira Caraveo. If the Republican Partyhad commensurate leadership, they would probably be

(01:24:00):
doing the same thing, but wedon't. So there you go. Yeah,
I couldn't. I couldn't agree more. It's the texture is right,
that we have had an influx ofLiberals and an influx of Californians. But
that and that might explain the stategoing from light red to purple or even
to light blue, but that doesn'texplain the deep, deep, deep blue
that this state is right now.And as Mandy said, that's a combination

(01:24:24):
of better organization by the Democrats andRepublicans just making every possible mistake they could.
Rob, let's get the last bitof your interview. Your convention is
less than a month away, probablyabout four weeks away now, I mean,
are you excited or even more excitednow to attend. I've been thrilled

(01:24:45):
to go to Chicago and represent Coloradowell, and I'm still as excited.
And we have a great group ofdelegates who are gonna, i think,
show what our party is, whichis a party focused on the future,
a party focused on making sure youhave a great paying job, that no
person from the government is in yourdoctor's office with you making your healthcare decisions.
We're going to be able to tellthat story to the American public,
and I expect that Colorado is goingto have a great opportunity to highlight what

(01:25:09):
is so great about our state,which is a freedom loving group of folks
focused on making sure life is great. And then what's the fundraising story in
this state? I mean, whereis there? Have you talked to any
donors in this state about the excitementabout this change or any of their fears
or have all right, slight technicallyhiccup, But I'm really excited about the

(01:25:33):
infrastructure that we're building here at theColorado Democratic Party. I think too often
we build these campaigns that are onlyfired up and ready to go from July
to November and an even year,and we're building something that's year round.
And so donors believe in our movementmore than they believe in any singular candidate.
They're excited to make sure that we'reelecting community minded leaders that are ready

(01:25:55):
to create jobs and cut the costsof living here. And so we're excited.
We're thrilled been helping to invest inmaking this a party that folks can
be proud of leading Colorado. Doyou sympathize with him about this decision?
It is tough because Historically, thePresident has been a tough person. He's
believed that he can overcome challenges.Do you sympathize with him about this decision?

(01:26:17):
Of course, I mean, Ithink that's what makes this decision even
more remarkable, that he's once againputting the country before himself. He very
easily and could have resigned after thetragic loss of his wife and children in
a car crash. Instead, hebuckled down and making sure that we're building
a country that's stay for everyone tolive in and can continue to live a
great life. He has always puthis country before himself, and this is

(01:26:41):
just another example of his staggering courageand patriotism. And we just couldn't be
more grateful to the President. AndI suspect most Americans will agree. That's
Rob Dawson's interview of the Colorado DemocraticParty Chairman Schad Morabe, and I will
the next to last thing he saidthere, Mandy, I think really re
emphasized the point you and I justmade. He said, we're building a

(01:27:03):
movement, not just a thing forthis election, and I think he's I
think he's right about that. Right. The big money people who wrote the
who did the blueprint, they didn'twrite the book about it, but they
did the blueprint. These are allbig time business people, including Jared Polis,
and they invest in good management,and they invested in systems and systems

(01:27:26):
exactly, and they invested in systemsand good management and it's worked for them
and Republicans haven't. Rob. Thanksfor getting that interview, really good get
Thanks for sharing it. You've gotit. Appreciate it. Mandy, I
want to share something with you.This is from the New York Times just
in the past hour or two.Choosing Ms Harris would be a reasonable path

(01:27:48):
for Democrats to take. She's beenmister Biden's running mate, and while no
votes were cast for her as apresidential candidate in the primaries, the president's
voters expected her to be on theticket in November. The less party delegates
should have a voice in a decisionof this consequence. There are other qualified
Democrats who could take on mister Trumpand win, and picking a candidate without

(01:28:12):
a real contest is how the partygot into a position of anointing a standard
bearer that large majorities of Democrats andIndependence had profound concerns about. While the
hour is late, there is stilltime to put leading candidates through a process
of public scrutiny before the party's nominatingconvention begins on August nineteenth, to inform
the choice of a nominee and buildpublic support. Wow. New York Times,

(01:28:35):
they didn't get the memo. Yeah, yeah, and I it's gonna
the next forty eight hours are gonnabe it right. People are either gonna
jump in or not or Kamala isgonna cement support behind her, at least
publicly, and she's gonna be thenominee going forward. Now does that set
well with Democratic voters? I don'tknow. If you voted for Joe Biden.

(01:28:58):
I mean, it's kind of likea I mean, she's almost like
a designer, impostor. Right,if you love Joe Biden, you're gonna
like Kamala Harris too. She's wayless expensive. So I don't think it
makes that much of a difference toa Biden voter. I think it might
make a difference to an independent voter. I think it might make a difference
to someone who has been looking fornot sure who to vote for it because

(01:29:21):
they didn't like it all. Imean, maybe they swing towards Harris now
away from Trump. I mean there'sjust so much in play here, and
because this is so unprecedented, it'sso hard to just kind of pin anything
down at this moment. That's absolutelyright, And Mandy and I have been
saying throughout these couple hours that we'vebeen on with you that the Democrats have

(01:29:44):
I don't know if you'd call ita problem. You would call it a
problem if you think that Kamala Harrisis a very weak candidate, and I
think she is the problem for theDemocrats is that she's, as you can
already see in betting odds, asignificant underdog to Donald Trump, and that
if it were only about winning andall else were equally, you would if
you were Democrats, you'd probably ratherhave someone else. The problem is if

(01:30:08):
you boot the first black Asian womanwould be president off of there, could
you possibly still win or will youlose black voters, or women voters,
or Asian voters, or just voterswho liked the whole DEI thing and would
be you know, it could bea suburban white woman or a young white
person who just doesn't like the ideaof you know, dissing Kamala Harris that

(01:30:29):
way. But I mean, didn'twe both you and I agree, and
I think the world agreed in twentysixteen that vote for her because she has
of a JJ is a terrible campaignstrategy. It was rejected wholeheartedly in twenty
sixteen, and it's going to haveto be I mean, I personally think
voters are most voters. There's alwaysgonna be identity voters who are you know,
that's fine, one issue voters thatare going to vote on abortion or

(01:30:51):
whatever it is. But for therest of us, we're looking for someone
that's offering a solution to the problemsthat the country is facing, that makes
sense, that seem like they're gonnawork. So that's what she is gonna
have to bring to the table ifshe wants to get over the finish line.
And I'm not saying she can't doit. Honestly, we don't know
what candidate Kamala Harris is gonna looklike now. Because she's been vice president.

(01:31:14):
I'm assuming she's been to some meetings, you know, I'm assuming she's
been briefed on stuff. Can sheconvey it in a concise, easy to
digest, likable fashion. I haveno idea. I mean, if past
history is any indication of future performance. I'm not super worried about that because
I don't think she's gonna be greatat it. I don't think she'll be

(01:31:36):
great at either. But you justnever know when somebody's gonna have a particularly
good day or a particularly bad day. It does certainly raise the stakes for
the second debate, if there isone. For those who weren't listening earlier,
I shared with you a message fromDonald Trump on his True social platform,

(01:31:56):
where I'll summarize. He basically said, hey, Kamala, you know,
hey, I agreed to a seconddebate with Joe Biden on ABC.
But now that it's not Joe Biden, if I'm going to be debating Kamala
Harris, I don't want ABC anymore. We'll do it on Fox News.
So now, as Mandy said,the gauntlet has been thrown. Yeah,
and so it'll be really interesting tosee if Kamala says, no, you

(01:32:17):
agreed to that debate on ABC andwe're just going to do it that way.
Would Donald Trump then say sorry,you'll be standing there by yourself exactly.
So I we'll see if the Harriscampaign, who now needs a debate
because she's got to show her gravitasversus Donald Trump. She's got to have

(01:32:38):
that opportunity because right now she's kindof an unknown in that manner, and
we'll see what happens. I meanthis is, we live in interesting times.
Ross, We live in interesting times. If you had told me that
three weeks ago we were about tohave a debate that in one evening disqualified
a sitting president from running for reelection, and then, oh, by the

(01:32:59):
way, a couple of weeks afterthat, the other guy gets shot,
and oh, by the way,one week later, guy who got disqualified
is now dropping out. I wouldhave laughed in your face. And yet
here we are working for a secondweekend in a row. Indeed, uh
we only we have a two minutesor so left, and we didn't actually
get back to the question. Weasked listeners about the deep steaks, and

(01:33:21):
a couple of people have said,Josh Shapiro and so on, but what's
what's your Who are your top two? I think you've said them already,
But see him again. I thinkpeople giving you. I think Mark Kelly
and Arizona. If there's a betterchance of him helping her win Arizona,
then we may get that. ButJosh Shapiro is a good a good guess,
but I do think that there isa it is a problem with the

(01:33:45):
pro Hamas wing of the Democratic Partywith a Josh Shapiro pick. So I
don't know. I just isn't itsad that I can't tick off a bunch
of like ready to go Democrats thatI think would be great for this position,
because I really can't. And that'sjust said. I mean, I
would say Jared Polis would be alogical choice. He doesn't deliver that much
in Colorado, but he's a gayman, he's a businessman to sort of

(01:34:09):
counterbalance her lack of knowledge outside publicservice. You know, there's a lot
of different strategicy that you and Iboth know is going to go on.
So we'll have to wait and see. First of all, if she solidifies
the nomination without a huge fight,Well know that I think in the next
twenty four to forty eight hours ifanyone's going to challenge her. So we're
just gonna have to wait and see. And the other point that I made

(01:34:30):
earlier and again, these comp thesecalculations are so complicated, and people tend
to focus on the one thing thatthey think is important, and that's not
necessarily the thing that the other guyor or gal, or the candidate or
the candidate's campaign manager whatever thinks isimportant. But I'm just not sure who's
going to want to run for VPif they are very confident that they're going

(01:34:54):
to lose, because they're the nameof mind right now, it's just name
ID At that point, it's like, how can I my national standing to
then run for president in the futureon my own as the candidate? And
that's very appealing for some people.Josh Shapiro would fall into that. Mark
Kelly would fall into that. Iyou know, I could see either one.
So those guys could fall into thatif they weigh the calculus the same

(01:35:17):
way, yeah, right, versusif they weigh at saying right. So
they're balancing what you said, gainingname ID versus losing and but they're not
losing. Nobody ever blames the vicepresident when the ticket loses. Uh huh.
Whoever's running for president loses the election. Well, that's true, and
that goes back to what we weresaying before about how whoever Kamala Harris,

(01:35:41):
if it's Kamala Harris picks to bethe running mate, probably won't actually make
the difference. All right, that'swhat we've got time for today. I'm
Ross Kaminski. You can hear menine to noon weekdays here on KAWAY.
That's Mandy Connell. You can hearher noon to three weekdays on Kaway.
And of course tomorrow we will becovering all of this with all the diferent
angles that show up overnight. We'reboth gonna have interesting guests for you.

(01:36:03):
And yeah, we're here working onthe weekend to bring you the news and
talk about it because this is whatwe do on ko A. Good night,
Mandy, thank you tonight, Ross. Good night everyone.