Podcast / See How They Run / Jul 27, 2024

Joe’s Out. Kamala’s In. What Now?

On this episode of See How They Run, Joan Walsh and Jeet Heer join the podcast to discuss week that changed everything about the 2024 election.

The Nation Podcasts
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Joe’s Out. Kamala’s In. What Now? | See How They Run
byThe Nation Magazine

On this episode of See How They Run, D.D. Guttenplan is joined by The Nation's Joan Walsh and Jeet Heer to discuss a week that changed everything about the 2024 election.

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Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the American Federation of Teachers' 88th National Convention on July 25, 2024, in Houston, Texas.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the American Federation of Teachers’ 88th National Convention on July 25, 2024, in Houston, Texas.

(Montinique Monroe / Getty Images)

American politics now appears to be following the old rule about buses: You wait and wait for a seismic shock, and then three or four suddenly arrive at once.

So it proved this Sunday, when, just as the country was catching its breath from Donald Trump’s brush with death and his selection of J.D. Vance as his vice president, Joe Biden bowed to a relentless pressure campaign and announced that he was dropping out of the presidential race. In the blink of an eye, Biden consigned himself to history. Now there is only one name on everyone’s lips: Kamala Harris.

All of the old questions about Biden are moot. We have new questions to consider: Who will Harris’s VP pick be? What would her administration look like? And, most importantly: Can she unite a fracturing Democratic base, take on Trump, pull off one of the most stunning political comebacks we’ve ever seen, and become the first Black, Asian, female president in history—all in just over 100 days?

To discuss all that on this week’s episode of See How They Run, I’m thrilled to be joined by two of our national affairs correspondents: Jeet Heer, who has been closely following the frenzy of the past few weeks, and Joan Walsh, one of the country’s top Harris-ologists, who has been reporting on the vice president for decades and whose exclusive, must-read profile of Harris is the cover story of our August issue.

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With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.

As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.

We can play this critical role because of support from readers like you. This June, we’re raising $20,000 to power The Nation’s independent journalism in the run-up to November’s immensely consequential elections.

It’s in our power to build a more just society, and your support at this critical moment brings us closer to that bold vision. I hope you’ll donate today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Huevel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation

D.D. Guttenplan

D.D. Guttenplan is a special correspondent for The Nation and the former host of The Nation Podcast. He served as editor of the magazine from 2019 to 2025 and, prior to that, as an editor at large and London correspondent. His books include American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone, The Nation: A Biography, and The Next Republic: The Rise of a New Radical Majority.

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